Quarantine compensation

Yesterday, Tuesday 11.08.20, MAF had a meeting with the company regarding various compensation models for those who will now work at Maersk Invincible and Maersk Integrator. 

MDN will provide a compensation which is equal to the model that applies for employees in AkerBP, but if national Norwegian requirements will involve, for example that Denmark is declared to be "red zone", then the compensation scheme presented would lapse, and lead to that only individuals living in Norway will receive compensation according to the AkerBP model.  

Everyone who presently lives in Norway and Denmark and who depend on the use of public transport, will get a quarantine period of 3 days (in practice 3 nights in Norway).
For personnel living in the UK or other countries that AkerBP has not defined as "green zones" (see page 20 in the AkerBP instructions for travels offshore - see link below) then the quarantine period would be 10 days, but with 2 tests implemented the period will be reduced to about 5 days.
AkerBP has defined all other countries within the Schengen/EEA area to be "red zones". So, under these circumstances, and if the Norwegian Government’s point of view implies that these countries are defined to be ‘green’, personnel from ‘green zones’ will receive compensation. For all countries outside the Schengen / EEA, the quarantine period will normally be 10 days, unless you have a production-critical role defined by AkerBP.
Simply put, EVERYONE from the UK who now works at Maersk Integrator and Maersk Invincible will be paid for their quarantine period, as long as the UK remains "green".

What was MAF's starting point when it all started?
From the beginning, MAF is of the opinion that all quarantine should have been regarded as part of the employee's period onboard, with compensation in accordance with the current Collective Agreement. It has not been possible to claim any compensation based on the Collective Agreement, so actually quarantine periods imposed by both authorities and operators has been impossible to be compensated for. For a local trade union branch it has not been possible to cope with the challenge to obtain compensation for time in quarantine. The issue is submitted, lifted, via IE to LO and that is where the disagreement lies today.

At the risk of anticipating the course of events, we see that infection rates are rising again both nationally and elsewhere in the world. So why is it possible to get compensation at this time, and not for the employees who previously worked on Maersk Reacher for AkerBP? The answer is that the company now sees that this will be round 2 of the quarantine for many individuals and it will include great many of MDN's employees. We do not know who pays ....
MAF is of the opinion that everyone should have been treated equally, so, that if you got a 10 days quarantine if you arrive from the US, and AkerBP had its 5-day quarantine, then the employee should be compensated for 5 of the days, ie independently of the national quarantine rules.

The company's proposal to compensate for what is beyond national requirements, means that all compensation lapses for everyone who is working on Integrator and Invincible for personnel who arrive from "red zone" countries if this now changes.
There is a proposal from FHI (National Institute of Public Health) to redefine several countries to be “red zones” this week together with parts of Denmark.
MAF believes that the employees are equally  quarantined if there exist a national requirement or there is regulations required by AkerBP, and why should not our members be met with at least as the same good conditions as those who are employed by the operator of the field? The answer was simple; because MDN is not obliged to pay for it.  

So what about personnel who are not on these two rigs contracted to AkerBP, and consequently have no operator requirements towards quarantine regulations at present?
Under such circumstances it becomes difficult to claim any compensation as Equinor and Repsol do not have internal quarantine requirements for their employees. This means that you must be quarantined without compensation if the national rules are changed, and then with reference to the disagreement between the Norwegian Shipowners' Association and Industri Energi. The issue is now with the parties at the highest level in working life.  

In the meeting the company otherwise stated that they would compensate everyone who experienced quarantine restrictions beyond the national requirements only, for employees in the company who work on the Norwegian shelf. A protocol of disagreement has been drawn up for this situation and it has now been signed by both parties. MAF has only confirmed its position in the protocol which is attached to this info.
In the protocol the company describes what they want to introduce, with a view to compensation for accommodation, driving and testing.
The company must themselves inform about their proposed solution for compensation. As previously stated, MAF do not agree with the model presented.   
All questions how to handle the situatuin must of course be answered by the company themseves.
The individual must contact their coordinator if there should be any questions.

Again, MAF will approach IE to start working to implement an industry standard, so that we have something to relate to in the future.
This is for sure not the last time we will be exposed to the fact that our members may end up in quarantine or other phenomena that prevent them from traveling offshore to their workplace.
The fact that one may hide behind a government requirement to avoid paying for employees who have to spend large parts of their time off in quarantine, this situation must come to an end.
You may wonder if this will be a subject at the wage negotiations this autumn .....  

https://www.akerbp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Offshore-travel-Instructions-Handling-the-Corona-situation-rev.9-Copy.pdf​

http://www.mafsiden.no/Protokoller/2020%20Aug%2011%20Meeting%20Quarantine%20and%20compensation.pdf