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Posted By Stuart Schouw
I am interested in ascertaining whether handicapped employees are actually allowed to work on oil installations offshore.
Would welcome any feedback - especially any legislation regarding qualifying criteria.
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Posted By Peter F
I am sure you mean disabled people?
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Posted By Kevin Brown
DDA 1995 covers a wide swathe of disability issues. How specific/selective do you want be? Stephen Hawking might present challenges in an offshore environment but how about non-visible disabilities? How would you know?
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Posted By Stuart Schouw
Dear Peter F ..... NO i mean handicapped - Oxford dictionary definition is .... physically disabled
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Posted By Stuart Schouw
Lets be a little more particular ....
Man working offshore for many years - ends up losing his leg due to a medical condition ...
What i am now trying to determine is whether there is any legislation that we can refer to in this instance
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Posted By bob safe
I just knew the handicapped V's disabled would come up, personally I disagree with both, everyone's different. I'd be classed as disabled but I'm a wee ray of sunshine on anyone's dullest day!
Seems to me like it's a case of common sense risk assessment. I don't know much about offshore work but would presume that if they're fit enough to do the survival course then they're fit enough for off shore. Of course certain conditions such as uncontrolled epilepsy etc. may make this unsuitable.
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Posted By Scotty
Hi Stuart
Disabled or physically impaired are much more useful terms. The Oxford dictionary is NOT the doyen of all things acceptable in language. Think about what other words are in there and would you find them acceptable to use to describe someone? Onwards...........
As stated above the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 is the key piece of legislation and, amongst a raft of other things, it requires employers to make reasonable adjustments to the work place for disabled employees.
Cheers.
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Posted By bob safe
Here was me thinking this was a question about an employee's safety, not a debate on definitions.
I've worked amputees before carrying out individual risk assessments and they've been as capable as anyone else. Would probably help to get an occ health assessment though and run it past your insurer
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Posted By CJP To work offshore you have to be passed as medically fit. The criteria in the UK are defined in the document referenced in: http://www.ukooa.co.uk/media/view-press.cfm/476but you have to buy it. The Dutch offshore medical standards can be downloaded from the NOGEPA website for free: http://nogepa.nl/paginas...OGEPAMedicalProtocol.pdfAs far as know they do not differ much from the UK standards. There are many medical conditions listed which may or may not exclude you from working offshore.
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Posted By Stuart Schouw
To elaborate a bit further .....
A man has been employed offshore for a number of years - due to medical reasons and ill health he subsequently had his left leg amputated above the knee.
The question on whether he would be able to return to work offshore with a prosthesis has raised its head.
Would be grateful if any legislation could be provided on the above point.
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Posted By Stuart Schouw
Gentlemen
Many thanks for all the responses - however if we could stick to the facts.
1/ He considers himself handicapped
2/ He would have no problem passing the medical or survival course
However the countless steps that would be the norm would be an issue
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Posted By Amandac
In agreement with previous posting with reference to the DDA. The employer needs to look at what the employee is capable of with reasonable adjustments.
You also need to take into account the standards required to work offshore for the employees sake. You may need to guide this employee in re-evaluating his career, however without knowing what job this person undertakes it is difficult to give a definitive response.
Also in agreement about the Handicapped v Disabled. Whilst the employee may consider himself handicapped the term used widely is disabled.
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Posted By Peter F
Ok sorry to start the disabled v handicapped debate. I work in a profession were we risk assess against the task, looking at the suitability of the persons disability. Some tasks can be carried out if not we look at what tasks they can do and employ them in those areas only.
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Posted By Seamus O Sullivan
Hi
What about refering to the person as a person with a disablity.
Regards
Seamus
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Posted By A Campbell
A person with a possible disability would likely be looked in the light of UKOOA medical standards for offshore work.
In addition employees would have to take into account....
emergency evacuation & escape from helicopter, ability to climb down and into the sea or boats (escape from a rig/platform)
Most production platforms have staircase access only to all levels...good exercise I felt!
Able to use BA or escape sets (H2S environments, smoke hoods etc.
And of course capability to carry out their tasks when actually out there!
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Posted By Stuart Schouw
Once again many thanks to those that have given positive feedback.
The response in general leads me to believe that there is no legislation to disqualify a person with a DISABILITY from working offshore.
Each situation and DISABILITY being unique would have to be risk assessed accordingly.
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Posted By A Campbell
Stuart,
What you would also may have to take into account is the medical fitness certificate...may have exclusions attached and also what the individual oil operator if you are a contractor requires as they have a pretty srtict regime in the uk, norway and dutch sector... almost like a principle contractor...what they say tends to go..in the real world that is!
Good luck with your quest
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Posted By Andy Brown
I worked in the offshore industry with a collegue who was an above the knee amputee. He was unable to go offshore as he couldn't get the required medical certificate. Anyone who has spent any time offshore will know that there are many ladders and steep staircases. Getting into survival craft or up to helidecks is difficult at the best of times, so he was restricted to shore based roles.
The medical requirements for working offshore are pretty strict with people being unable to get their medical certs renewed as they were too overweight or did not have a certificate from their dentist. The cost of medivacing someone from a platform is staggeringly expensive, so a low risk approach is taken.
I am unaware of a relaxing of the medical requirements in the last few years.
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Posted By stevencro
I work in the offshore industry and would very much doubt that an amputee would be allowed to travel offshore.
As mentioned above, the survival would cause a problem and the medical fitness check even more so.
In my opinion, i think it's reasonable to say that the person in question would not be as agile in the event of a helicopter ditching, which in turn could compromise the safety of others on the flight. Also take in to account the need to react to emergency on the installation. This could again, result in others being put at risk.
That's all before the actual aspects of the job have been thought about.
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Posted By A Campbell
Oh..Joy not to be squashed into a helicopter to get to work in the winter months!
I didn't think that times have changed in regards to medical fitness ect..in fact proberly increased in view of costs involved in medivacs etc!
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