Refusal

A Call From The Rig ? Oh FFS What Now ?

We got an urgent call from one of the rigs today. One of our local workers, let's call him Hussain , to preserve his anonymity, was refusing to start his shift this morning. Bear in mind, he's on an offshore oil rig, it's not like just deciding not to goto the office. He's "done his two weeks" and now he wants to go home. He was due to come off tomorrow, but his replacement has got "a family emergency" and so can't make it. We'd asked Hussain to do an extra week. I say , an extra week, it's not extra as his contract does not state he works 2/2 - but in his head he does.

So that's him fired, I'd stopped his salary by midday and by 1600hrs he was officially off the system. Nice to see HR can be efficient when they try.

He's not made things easy for himself, the company man has thrown him off the rig onto a boat. He wasn't going to let him wait for tomorrow's chopper. Poor Hussain gets sea sick on a jack up rig, so I think the long boat ride won't be too nice, especially as the sea is very rough right now - the boats haven't been running for the last four days. So he gets a long boat ride but is already off the payroll. And because he's still on his 3 month probation, I can fire him instantly for no reason. Although, refusal to follow orders is usually good enough to get rid of most people, no matter who your father is.

What none of us can understand is how anyone could have that sort of attitude, if you tried that on a rig in the North Sea you'd get a boot up the backside, although you'd most probably be lynched by the rest of the crew for making their lives harder.

Meanwhile on another rig, one of previously more reliable local hands has got "a family emergency" and wants to go home.....