Icheme Symposium Series No. 139 Offshore Safety Management in the “new Era”: Perceptions and Experiences of Workers *

In the context of considerable focus upon offshore safety, relatively little attention has been paid to the experiences of offshore workers themselves. This paper begins with a discussion of the origins, nature, and likely consequences of UKOOA’s ‘Cost Reductions in a New Era’ initiative, which addresses itself directly to questions of culture and cost reductions in the sector. We then note changes to the post Piper Alpha offshore safety regime in relation to two key areas, namely the development of safety cases and the system of safety representatives and safety committees. Using themes developed on the basis of interviews, evidence is then drawn from interviews with a small sample of offshore workers to determine their perceptions of the efficacy of the new offshore safety regime. Following these considerations relating to the formal system of safety organisation, we shift to examine perceptions of the less tangible, but perhaps most significant aspects of safety organisation; these are termed ‘management attitudes’ and ‘cost-cutting’.