Posted By Paul Craythorne Steve, It would be nice to say that this was probably one of those rare occassions where an employer does not appreciate the importance of H&S training. Sadly, it goes on more than you may think. Anyway, to respond to your posting. You are quite right that the training should take place during normal working hours, or if it is necessary to do it out of these hours, then the hours should be considered part of the working day and therefore salaried. The employer is therefore in breach of Regulation 13 (not 11) of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and ultimately Section 9 of HASAWA. However, unless normal industrial relations techniques can get the employer to agree the payment for this and any future necessary H&S training, then the only course of action open to the aggrieved parties may be to inform the enforcement agency. If the Inspector cannot get an amicable settlement to the issue by way of reasoning, he/she will have no alternative but to take the appropriate legal action against the employer. This process may prove to be very long winded and during and after this period working relations between the employer and employees may become difficult to say the least. All this red tape may not expedite the employees pay as quick as they would like. In your posting you do not state whether the employees are represented by a Trade Union, if they are then this may be the best course of action. If not, I suggest you try negotiation before you bring the enforcers into the equation. The one thing that is probably certain in all this is, that if you do nothing, it will happen again. I know this hasn't helped you to resolve the problem but it is probably as good as it gets. Regards, Paul

Posted By Ian Waldram I agree with Paul and sympathise with your position. There is a fairly long history in the offshore industry of problems when people are required to attend industry-standard refresher training in their "time off", usually 2 weeks when they are at home. As far as I know, it is universally agreed that individuals should paid for this time - the issue is trying to agree whether they should have extra "time off" as well. I hope this example helps.

Posted By Stuart Nagle There is another angle. I would suggest that employment law as well plays a part here. If the personnel were contracted to work the hours, and of course the employer is legally required to provide training (as above ect), the men are fully entitled to pay for those hours within their working week. They may even decide NOT to do this work until they have recieved the pay for the hours they have been contracted to work and denied by their employer. This could be a good negotiating tool !! If they are represented by a trade union, I suggest they take this matter to their representative at the earliest opportunity. Stuart Nagle