Employee participation and cooperation between the parties

Employee participation
Employee participation is an important pillar in the work to establish and further develop high HSE standards in the enterprises. It is essential that those exposed to risk are given the opportunity to participate in decision processes which affect HSE.

Good practices for employee participation have been established in a number of areas. However, there is still some potential for improvement. This particularly applies to participation in connection with reorganisation and rationalisation processes, introduction of new administrative management tools, introduction of new ICT systems, and when entering into contracts.

Statutory
The requirement of employee participation is laid down in the Working Environment Act, the Petroleum Act and in the Regulations relating to health, environment and safety in the petroleum activities (the Framework Regulations, Section 6).

The purpose of employee participation is, in part, to use the employees' overall knowledge and experience to ensure that issues are sufficiently examined before decisions that concern health, safety and environment are made. Participation shall also provide the employees with the opportunity to influence their own work situation.

Plans for participation should be established in connection with major and more comprehensive matters - for example organisation and development work, and development and modification projects. In connection with tender processes or the entering into of contracts which entail significant changes in the organisation of work, staffing or technology, the participation of the employee representatives in the working environment committee must be facilitated in those matters which may affect the working environment.

The employees and employee representatives are entitled to participate in development work that concerns the design and organisation of the work in the petroleum activities. This applies to, for example, design of methods, procedures and instructions which affect one's own work situation. The functional regulations for the petroleum activities entail that a number of solutions are chosen locally. This makes it even more necessary that all parties involved are allowed to participate.

The employee participation requirement also entails a duty on the part of the employer to ensure that the employees have sufficient knowledge and skills, as well as sufficient time to perform their tasks. Thus, the employees must be given management system training and be made familiar with the results of systems reviews of the same. The employer must ensure that the safety delegates are given access to the regulatory requirements which apply to the enterprise, so that they may discharge their duties according to the Working Environment Act. This also includes all relevant framework-defining documents which complement the regulations.

Cooperation between the parties
The Norwegian HSE management model is based on close cooperation between the employers and employees. The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway organises and leads two important tripartite forums:

The Regulatory forum is composed of the parties within the safety and working environment area, both the companies and the authorities. The forum task is to facilitate participation, transparency and information about activities which determine the framework, e.g. adaptation to the EU/EEA regulations, industry standardisation and regulatory strategy. The functional regulations are to a large degree based on recognised industrial standards. A precondition for this is that the standards are developed within the framework of the tripartite cooperation.

The Safety Forum was established in 2001, and is the key tripartite arena for HSE in the petroleum industry. Its purpose is to contribute to increased knowledge and understanding for how the activities shall be at the forefront in the field of HSE.