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Equinor settled in an employment law case, where five employees demand that the written warnings be removed. The case was scheduled to have its last day in Stavanger District Court on Friday.
The settlement was reached Thursday night, after the third day of the trial in which both the plaintiffs and Equinor brought witnesses with some highly conflicting descriptions of a years-long conflict on the Statfjord B platform.
– I can confirm that an agreement has been reached, says lawyer Elin Rovik, who represents the applicant who is a member of the Industri Energi association.
Rovik does not want to say anything about the content of the agreement.
Attorney Vidar Lindbekk, who represents the other plaintiffs, did not respond to questions from Aftenbladet / E24 on Thursday night.
Union Summit: – Warnings drawn
– The case that reached the Stavanger District Court, where several Equinor employees sued the company, has been resolved. I can confirm this, says Per Helge Ødegård, a shop steward at the Lederne union in Equinor, which organizes three of the employees who have sued the company.
According to Ødegård, Equinor has withdrawn written warnings against employees. These were the main claims of the plaintiffs in the case.
– I am glad that we have found an agreed solution, says Ødegård.
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Union leader Per Helge Ødegård is pleased that Equinor has reached an agreement.
Jarle Aasland
Equinor does not answer why
– I can confirm that I have been informed that an agreement has been reached tonight, says Morten Eek, Equinor spokesperson at Aftenbladet / E24.
Ek also won’t go into more detail about what’s in the deal, or whether this means written warnings against employees are now being withdrawn.
– I think almost the parties should be able to comment, but I can say that we are happy that there was contact with the parties tonight and that an agreed solution was found.
– Why was an agreement reached now? Isn’t it the case that this case appeared tonight?
– I don’t have much more to say about this than that there has been a dialogue about this tonight, that a solution has been found and we are satisfied with it.
Morten Eek, spokesperson for the Norwegian continental shelf at Equinor.
Fredrik Refvem
Bitter conflict
There were originally five plaintiffs. Four of them took the case to court. In common with them was that they wanted Equinor to withdraw the written warnings they had been given, for violating the company’s ethical guidelines.
The warnings were, among other things, that the plaintiffs had “negative body language” and engaged in the social freeze of a middle manager, refused to follow orders, and made disparaging remarks against some new employees.
The warnings were given based on an investigative report on the work environment at Statfjord B, after it was announced that, among others, those who eventually sued Equinor had been rude to three new employees on the platform.
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The plaintiffs believe that the content of the notifications is not rooted in reality.
Instead, they believe the problem is a former middle manager on the platform, who they believe had a leadership style that led to conflicts on the platform escalating to an unsustainable level.
The current middle manager, who is now retired, testified in court Thursday and did not understand the allegations of problematic leadership style.
The plaintiffs have also criticized the quality of the investigation they were subjected to and believe that it misrepresents what has happened at Statfjord B. It is undisputed that for many years there were significant problems with the working environment on the platform. According to a representative who testified in court Wednesday, new research will show that the work environment has now improved.
