The purpose of joint working environment committees is to ensure coordination of the individual enterprises’ safety and environment work and to give all employees a genuine opportunity of taking part in and influencing the safety and environment work at their own workplace, regardless of their employment relationship. Reference is made to Section 7-2 of the
Working Environment Act and provisions on safety delegates in
Regulations 6 December 2011 relating to organisation, management and participation (in Norwegian only). These regulations also apply directly to the petroleum activities, with the specifications and limitations given in the regulations. The duty to establish joint working environment committees does not reduce the duty of the individual employer to establish a working environment committee at its own enterprise, cf.
Section 34 of the Framework Regulations. The joint working environment committee will be superior to the working environment committees of the individual enterprises in matters related to the jurisdiction of the joint working environment committee.
The term "field" is continued in the new regulations, inter alia to ensure delimitation of the areas that naturally form an entity for such co-ordination.
Coordinating working environment committees for fields as mentioned in the first subsection, should be limited organisationally to ensure representation of all main activity areas, familiarity with the local conditions at the workplace and proximity to the work of the committee. If agreement cannot be reached among the operator, the contractors in the various main activity areas and the safety delegates as to establishing a coordinating working environment committee that comprises more than one field, cf. the requirement regarding general agreement as mentioned in the first subsection, one of the parties can submit the issue to the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority; which, after having considered all aspects of the matter, can decide if such a working environment committee is to be established.
The main activity areas mentioned in the second section, include drilling, well service, catering, construction, maintenance and production. What is to be considered as main activity areas, will depend on the actual activity on the various facilities.
In order to fulfil the requirement for participation as mentioned in the second subsection, the representatives should come from the principal undertaking and from the largest contractors in the various main activity areas. The employees' representatives should be elected by and among the safety delegates and main safety delegates for the various main activity areas. Two or more trade unions that together organise the majority of the employees in a main activity area can agree that the election will take place as a proportionate representation election or that these trade unions will appoint the employees' representatives for the area, cf.
Regulations 6 December 2011 relating to organisation, management and participation (in Norwegian only). These regulations also apply directly to the petroleum activities, with the specifications and limitations given in the regulations. The coordinating working environment committee for the field should have at least one employee representative from each manned facility on the field. The operator's representative on a mobile facility can have status either as an observer or as a representative with voting rights. On the joint, local working environment committee on mobile facilities, a representative of the operator can represent the employer side for contractors that have been hired by the operator.
Coordination as mentioned in the last subsection, means coordination of safety and environment-related matters that are of significance for both mobile and permanently placed facilities on the field.
Coordinating working environment committee for fields as mentioned in the provision, also includes personnel working on simpler facilities and accommodated on vessels.