An info about re-employment, competence group, corona, quarantine and Pension Insurance for Seafarers.
Re-employment and the Competence Group
A small bright spot in a very strenuous year with corona and many redundancies, is that the company is in the process of re-employing some of those who were laid off earlier this year.
Invinsible must have 18 extra floorhands, and Intrepid must have 3 extra on deck for a period until April, with the possibility of extension. Many have already agreed to re-employment.
At the same time, we have been pushing to get more people into the Competence Group. We currently have a very high level of sickness leaves, which has led to an excessive consumption of temps especially in the deck and drilling sections, but also a with a high consumption of overtime in general.
The plan right now is to employ 14 more individuals for deck/drilling in the Competence Group, then we will end up with a total of 54 persons in this group. MAF does not think that this is enough to cover the full need, but we see it as an initial start and we will follow up again on this subject already in the month of January.
Corona and Quarantine
Of course, we still receive many questions about how things are going with the two largest quarantine related cases, respectively compensation for quarantine in general and the length of the quarantine period for those arriving from abroad.
Our claim for compensation still remains with our lawyers in LO, where we are awaiting legal action. We claim compensation for all quarantine whether it is imposed by the authorities or not.
At the request of both MAF and other local branches, Industri Energi sent a joint letter through the cooperation body Konkraft to the Minister of Health at the end of November, proposing that the quarantine period for those arriving from abroad be shortened to a maximum of 6 days. We are still awaiting a response. For more details about the inquiry to the Minister of Health, please read here:
https://www.industrienergi.no/nyhet/industry-energy-works-continuously-for-improving-solutions-for-members-who-have-to-stay-in-hotel-quarantine/
Pension Insurance for Seafarers
The company has been in contact with PTS, which informs that employees who have been moved up into group 1 are entitled to a higher rate of payment from 2017, ref circular letter dated 10.04.2017, and will arrange this for employees in relevant positions valid from 01.01.2017.
MAF disagrees and claims that their information indicates that this cannot become a matter of obsolescence. MAF and claims that the company pays in arrears for all employees from 2012. MAF will take the information submitted to the company and submit the same back to IE and PTS.
MAF changes their claim to involve retroactive effect for the individuals who are employed as of 1 Nov 2020.
The company will make an assessment of the effect of the changed claim, and will provide an answer as soon as possible.
Otherwise, on behalf of AU and the MAF Board, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 
