Mutineers Go Back To Their Oil Rig

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday September 12, 1986

By PAUL McGEOUGH

PERTH: The workers whose mutiny on the North-West Shelf last month upset the international oil and gas industry will be ferried back to their platform today.

All 330 have agreed to sign undertakings that will guarantee safety on and continuity of gas supplies from the rig, 130 kilometres off Karratha, on the north-west coast of Western Australia.

But the 14 drillers whose dismissal sparked the mutiny will not go back yet. Under a settlement accepted by a meeting of the men yesterday, the drillers will be suspended on pay pending the outcome of another inquiry - this time by the Arbitration Commission.

Two hundred contract workers who were sacked or stood down this week because of the interruption to their work on the rig have also been put back on their employers' payrolls. But they, too, will be left onshore until there is work for them.

During the mutiny - the men took control of the platform helideck which prevented the police and government officers from going on board - the State Government and the operators of the rig, Woodside Offshore Petroleum, said that there was little chance of the 14 drillers ever returning to the offshore industry.

Earlier this week, the Minister for Minerals and Energy, Mr David Parker, confirmed that a report from his department had urged that they be blackballed.

However, it seems that union insistence that both Mr Parker and the company stand by undertakings made at the height of the drama may have swayed negotiations.

The workers agreed to end their mutiny only after Mr Parker had told them they would all be allowed to keep their jobs.

And the company offered to reinstate the sacked drillers if they agreed to undertakings similar to those which they have now signed.