{"id":555118,"date":"2025-11-07T12:43:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T12:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/555118\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T12:43:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T12:43:17","slug":"lose-weight-or-lose-your-jobs-offshore-workers-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/555118\/","title":{"rendered":"Lose weight or lose your jobs, offshore workers told"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Curran,BBC Scotland and <\/p>\n

Ken Banks,North east Scotland reporter<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Coastguard helicopters can be essential in offshore emergencies<\/p>\n

Thousands of North Sea oil workers are being told they must lose weight if they are to keep flying offshore – or face losing their jobs.<\/p>\n

From November next year, industry body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) said the maximum clothed weight for a worker heading offshore should be 124.7kg (19.5 st) – so they can be winched to safety in an emergency.<\/p>\n

The 249kg (39st) maximum Coastguard rescue helicopter winch load is made up of that figure plus the average 90.3kg (14st) weight of a rescue worker, a 29kg (4.5st) stretcher and the 5kg (0.8st) kit.<\/p>\n

OEUK said more than 2,200 workers were currently above the weight limit, and jobs could be lost in the worst case scenario.<\/p>\n

The new safe weight limit policy<\/a> comes after the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) warned that rescue winches – which are critical during offshore emergencies – cannot safely lift heavier people.<\/p>\n

OEUK said the average weight of offshore workers had risen by almost 10kg (1.5st) since 2008.<\/p>\n

The decision to implement a safe weight limit for offshore workers follows a review by industry experts over the past two-and-a half years.<\/p>\n

Rules about shoulder size were previously introduced for workers travelling to and from offshore installations by helicopter.<\/p>\n

Passengers with a shoulder width of 22in (56cm) or more were classed as “extra broad”<\/a> and had to sit next to a similarly large helicopter window, so they could escape.<\/p>\n

Could jobs be lost?<\/p>\n

Graham Skinner, the health and safety manager at OEUK, said it was hoped the new safety policy – as part of a “robust safety culture” – would not lead to job losses, but he could not rule it out.<\/p>\n

“That would be the absolute worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

“Employers will have a duty to support their workers through this and try to find reasonable solutions for it, but in the very worst cases that would be the case for some people.”<\/p>\n

Mr Skinner described it as “really important” that there was a clear message to the workforce that the new rules were going to come in.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully that is the impetus for everyone to get behind the policy and lose weight in time for November next year,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Graham<\/p>\n

Graham Skinner said workers had a year to lose weight<\/p>\n

“There are those who are going to have a real challenge over the next 12 months to lose weight to get under the weight limit.<\/p>\n

“There is about 2,270 that are going to have to lose a little bit of weight to make sure they can continue working after November next year.<\/p>\n

“At that point an offshore worker who weighs over 124 kg will not get their medical and that will preclude them from getting on a helicopter.”<\/p>\n

However, Mr Skinner said they were “really confident” that the “vast majority” of workers were going to get under the weight limit.<\/p>\n

Some are extremely fit<\/p>\n

He cited the support they would get from their employers, the offshore operators, and the offshore community itself.<\/p>\n

“We have already heard of offshore workers who are offering circuit training and gym sessions for workers,” he added.<\/p>\n

“So it’s a great opportunity for the community to come together.”<\/p>\n

John Boland, the regional officer at the Unite union, said: “We would hope that nobody loses their job through this and there can be support put in to stop that from happening.<\/p>\n

“The biggest concerns we have had are from individuals that are naturally larger built and in some cases are extremely fit but are above that actual weight limit.<\/p>\n

“Those are discussions we need to have, how we can support those individuals as well.”<\/p>\n

The mandatory implementation of the new policy will be from 1 November 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rebecca Curran,BBC Scotland and Ken Banks,North east Scotland reporter Getty Images Coastguard helicopters can be essential in offshore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-555118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115508480618041977","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}