Lose weight or risk losing your job, chunky oil rig workers told | Oil and gas companies

Hundreds of North Sea oil and fuel staff danger shedding their jobs on offshore rigs except they drop extra pounds throughout the subsequent yr.Employees who weigh greater than 124.7kg (19.5 st) totally clothed might want to shed some kilos by subsequent November or danger being barred from working offshore, in response to the business’s commerce physique.The brand new security coverage is anticipated to have an effect on 2,500 individuals employed offshore who’re above the load restrict, which has been put in place in order that staff could be winched to security by a rescue helicopter in an emergency.Graham Skinner, the well being and security supervisor at Offshore Energies UK, the business’s commerce affiliation, mentioned the organisation can be “working actually arduous” over the following 12 months to make sure affected staff can drop extra pounds.Talking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he mentioned: “Our inhabitants on the whole is getting heavier, and that’s mirrored within the offshore inhabitants.”Skinner mentioned there are an extra 2,500 offshore staff who’re “beneath the load restrict however may want some extra assist and weight administration”, which means “5,000 is the overall quantity of people that is likely to be affected to some lesser or higher extent” by the coverage change.“These individuals can be actually supported by the offshore neighborhood and their employers throughout that point,” he added.“We now have been addressing this over time, however sadly weight has continued to rise,” Skinner mentioned.“It will increase yr on yr and it begins to create some challenges throughout all the protection methods we’ve in place offshore to deliver staff dwelling if the worst occurs, whether or not it’s sickness or harm.“We’ve labored collectively for the final two and a half years as an business to seek out options throughout issues like lifeboats, stretchers, helicopter rescue, and we’ve actually found a weight restrict is the one resolution out there to us.”