Norwegian workforce involvement in safety offshore

Abstract

Highlights Norwegian regulatory framework with its employee participation tradition. Posits a response of the UK government was the introduction of new offshore regulations with a required need for safety meetings and elected safety representatives. Recognizes, in Canada, that moving into the production phase of the offshore oil industry triggered a renewed interest in offshore safety. Concludes Norway's amended offshore oil and gas regulations of 1998 placed heavy emphasis on workers' input to enable all the changes to take place in a correct manner.

Systematic review of qualitative literature on occupational health and safety legislation and regulatory enforcement planning and implementation

“…Two other studies in this review describe detrimental OHS effects of workplace organizational restructuring. Hart (24) found that downsizing on Norwegian oil rigs reduced the number of internal safety supervisors, which limited coordinating OHS mechanisms at each rig. Quinlan's (26) review of OHS prosecution cases found that although Australian regulators and inspectors were aware that downsizing and restructuring impacted OHS standards, prosecutions were not launched because of the complexity of establishing a clear connection between downsizing and a deterioration of OHS processes.…”

Sustaining safety across organizational boundaries: a qualitative study exploring how interorganizational complexity is managed on a petroleum-producing installation

“…Philosophical framework has important implications for the research focus and design, as well as the interpretations of findings. In this paper, the researchers ascribe to the postpositivistic paradigm underpinned by an ontology assuming the existence of an objective and observable reality that is only imperfectly and partially apprehendable (Guba and Lincoln 1994). From this perspective, research can never be truly objective and value-free, and it is acknowledged that the research process always to some extent will be influenced by the researcher and the methods applied.…”