Bristow Nigeria sacks 100+ striking pilots and engineers

[CharlieOneSix]

From the Nigerian FlightDeck website:

BRISTOW Helicopters this afternoon has announced the sack of over 100 pilots and engineers (both nationals and expatriates) over the next couple of weeks saying it has engaged the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) to negotiate a fair and equitable redundancy compensation for the affected individuals.

This move may not be unconnected with the current industrial action that has lasted two days so far orchestrated by pilots and engineers in the company.

So nothing changes - the old man may have gone but this is 1977 in the UK all over again! The insincerity behind the words of the first paragraph above shines through.

Talk about voluntarily putting your head into the noose so that the Company can open the trap door. Timing is everything and this wasn't the time to strike.

Nigerian FlightDeck article

[G-CPTN]

Pour encourager les autres.

[FD2]

As C16 says - 'this wasn't the time to strike.'

What an ideal opportunity it presented the management!

Redundancy package? Everyone got the absolute legal minimum when I went through the 'process' with Bristow.

[CharlieOneSix]

........Redundancy package? Everyone got the absolute legal minimum when I went through the 'process' with Bristow.

I took 'voluntary' redundancy from Bristow. They were looking to lose 40 pilots age 55 or over - ie expensive Senior Captains. The terms were:

• Volunteer for redundancy and we'll give you a good financial package. It wasn't the best package ever heard of but it was acceptable to me.

• If you don't volunteer and we select you for redundancy then all you get is a statutory redundancy package, ie the minimum allowed by law.

I had asked to retire early about 5 months before this and it had been refused then so I was happy to go. Many were not and I believe half a dozen or so who did not volunteeer succeeded at an Industrial Tribunal on the grounds of selection by age alone.

[FD2]

In another case I was not involved with, the head office at Redhill faxed Aberdeen to inform them of upcoming redundancies at Aberdeen. It must have been about 2000/2001 and the chief pilot at Norwich shrugged and said this applies, as it says, to Aberdeen, as we're not mentioned. A feeling in his water made him phone a chum at Redhill who told him that despite the faxed letter being 'wrong' it actually applied throughout the UK bases. They just wanted the highest paid and worked down from there. A lot of very loyal and experienced people got the boot in that round of 'redundancies' with only the statutory minimum payments. Maybe some of them were successful in that Tribunal C16?

I my case it was through the loss of long standing contracts with Amoco and Arco but the advent of new contract work meant that several of us were soon back with the company. It seems cynical to tell the junior guys who are busting a gut at work to calm down but under the Board of Directors at the time and the personnel director in particular we were all just 'bums on seats' no matter how long one had served or how dedicated one had been to the company.

Apologies for the drift C16.

[CharlieOneSix]

No drifting there FD2, it just shows that loyalty counts for nothing. Possibly your first paragraph refers to the time of my redundancy - September 99.

Yes, the guys that went to the tribunal succeeded in their cases. I don’t know what financial settlement they received.

[Seenenough]

Chasing the big (Africa) payday has undesired and unavoidable consequences,on the other hand.

[FD2]

Did you get burned, out in the Dark Continent Seenenough?

Bristow and Shell have been operating in Nigeria successfully for many years, but it can be pretty rough at times. Two months was my limit and I swore I'd stack supermarket shelves rather than return.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Did you get burned, out in the Dark Continent Seenenough?

Bristow and Shell have been operating in Nigeria successfully for many years, but it can be pretty rough at times. Two months was my limit and I swore I'd stack supermarket shelves rather than return.

I can't imagine watching the detritus and the bodies disgorging into Lagos lagoon could have been much fun.

Angola isn't much better. My ex-wife's neighbour's husband, an oil industry engineer, simply disappeared, presumed murdered while working there. She waited 5 years and the legal presumption of death was ratified and she married an American and now the spends six months per annum alternatively in Florida and Cape Town save for this year where they have been stuck in the Cape during the winter...

Life truly is cheap in Africa.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Did you get burned, out in the Dark Continent Seenenough?

Bristow and Shell have been operating in Nigeria successfully for many years, but it can be pretty rough at times. Two months was my limit and I swore I'd stack supermarket shelves rather than return.

I can't imagine watching the detritus and the bodies disgorging into Lagos lagoon could have been much fun.

Port Harcourt is worse I hear.

Where will all the disillusioned oil industry pilots go? I note that Total's BrulPadda offshore discovery is not likely to come on-stream soon, if ever...

Could Total’s Brulpadda offshore discovery

[FD2]

Port Harcourt was terrible in 1983, as was Warri and Lagos. Gunfights in the accommodation compound at night, never sure what 'cut' of meat we were eating, no telephone apart from in the main post office, surly locals, mains power off more than on, necklace killing on the steps of the Hilton in Lagos, many weapons left over from the civil war, old woman's body left in the road for a week before JCB burial at side of road, hands out for 'dash' from army, police, immigration etc.

That's just for starters without talking about the flying!

GG ?

[Seenenough]

Did you get burned, out in the Dark Continent Seenenough?

Bristow and Shell have been operating in Nigeria successfully for many years, but it can be pretty rough at times. Two months was my limit and I swore I'd stack supermarket shelves rather than return.

FD,I did not but I know several pilots and engineers who were.

They all said similar things that you said they could not stand it for very long but the money was good.

Our operations in South Africa offered steady and consistent work for pilots who were well paid by South African standards.Many of our pilots and some of our engineers were lured away to both Nigeria and Angola with higher pay but it normally did not take long for them to re-apply to us for work some months later if we had an opening.

Unfortunately the Oil and Mining Industry in Africa is beset with problems and it is very difficult for operators to establish consistency in the boom and bust situation that these industries create.I know several SA Operators who went into the tropics, after the big money, only to get burned badly.

[TheGreenGoblin]

GG ?

My phone went, a confounded client, and like a fool I submitted the post, and took the call and by the time I got back to it it was too late to edit, let alone, complete it.. It will hang there forever lost in space and time (that's my story anyway and I am sticking to it)...

[FD2]

Seenenough - no the money wasn't very good. Marginally above the North Sea rates through a tax fiddle in Cyprus. Some people loved the lifestyle because it kept them away from home (!), others because it gave them a decent period of time off to work on projects, go exploring or sailing etc. There were a few because they had blotted their copy books back home. I don't think any were doing it for the money but may have saved by having two months 'on' paid by their employers - a good idea for a bachelor - but married people still had to support families back home. Most helicopter people had two months 'on' and a month 'off'. The worst (non aviation) was a pipeline laying company from Louisiana - they had to do six months on to get their month off. I did it for a change of scene and on what turned out to be dubious evidence from someone who had worked there. It certainly turned out to be a 'different' experience.

[Seenenough]

FD,for South Africans,the money was better than they could do at home and they were prepared to work for less than the European pilots and engineers were asking.Many Saffers also tried to use the situation as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.Some got it right but majority unfortunately didn't.

The biggest payday to be had in Africa was to have flown in the "Security Contractor" market.Even more money was available if they flew in the same market in Iraq.