Safety Forum

In both countries, however, the involvementofthe workforce concerns predominantly the processes and activities of the employer. In Norway, there is an element of influencing future policies of the regulator via the Safety Forum, but outside of this the involvement not just of the workforce but any or all of the stakeholders is 1 imited both in Norway and the United Kingdom. This is especially true when it comes to the decisionmaking process of the regulator in carrying out its inspection services. 

The Safety Forum was established in the autumn of 2000 with representatives from government, companies and unions. Its main job was to promote work on safety and the working environment in the petroleum industry by ... 

Safety Forum, http //www.ptil.no/safety-fomm/category167.html... 

The Safety Forum is also involved in the process of producing policy documents on health, safety and the environment in the petroleum industry in forms of white papers. The parties can thereby also actively influence the policy framework in a strategic perspective. 

Objectivity and trustworthiness are key words when one is to form a considered opinion about safety. The results from the project have been presented for Safety Forum, where the trade unions and the employers federations are represented. The comments thus far have been positive and constructive with expectations that this will contribute to a common platform for safety improvement. 

Authority, Norway, five years later, some of the main protagonists expressed their views on Safety Forum. The director of the Safety Department of the NPD and chairman of Safety Forum, Magne Ognedal, expressed his views on the process from controversy towards a more collaborative climate between the parties One of the most important tasks of the Safety Forum was to work for a climate and a culture of mutual respect. We struggled a little bit in the beginning, but this has increasingly improved (Ognedal 2005). 

Two of the union representatives in Safety Forum underscored the importance of a formal arena for interaction ... 

After stressing the importance of Safety Forum as a tripartite arena, both union representatives were more concerned with, and critical of, the oil companies than reflecting on their own role and contribution. Karlsen spoke frankly about the issue of power and underscored that the earlier power tactics of the oil companies were not as easy to deploy in the face-to-face setting in the forum. Furre, for his part, raised the question of who has the power to define and operationalise the concept of safety, and the influence of cultural differences in this respect. The two quotes demonstrate that the unions were in favour of Safety Forum but they still went on attacking the oil companies. 

The trade unions enrolled the political authorities in their efforts to establish a new arena for tripartite collaboration (Safety Forum). 

Many of the new arenas that were created, such as Safety Forum and the reference groups of RNNP and other research projects, tended to recruit participants from a small population of dedicated persons in trade unions, employers federations, oil companies and the NPD. As a consequence, these people met each other frequently and had the opportunity to get familiar and develop informal and pragmatic styles of interaction. 

Regulatory and Safety forums as places to air and adjust perceptions. 

RNNP is a biyearly investigation carried out by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The investigation uses input from statistics, questionnaires and interviews to give and present a picture of the overall risk in the petroleum industry. This case study covers the qualitative part of the investigation. Around 20 persons, all with central HSE positions, were interviewed most of them members of a safety forum dealing with HSE questions within the petroleum industry. The... 

What has the safety forum been engaged in regarding 10 ... 

Integrated operations and the consequences for HSE had only been discussed on a brief level in the safety forum. 

In the RNNP case study the expectation was quite clear these senior safety personnel were asked to give their view on the overall development of the HSE level as a consequence of this new way of organizing the work. Some of the interviewees had however some difficulties in dividing between the function they had as members of the safety forum and the position they had within their own company. They also based their view on an experience through many years and this experience could be from several companies or institutes. 

Tripartite collaborative practice was one of the key themes in the qualitative study of the RNNP project in 2009. In the petroleinn industry tripartite collaborative practices is formalized through two ceutral arenas The Safety Forum and Working together for Safety These arenas are both working within the Petroleiun Safety Authority s (PSA) field of action, and have representatives from trade imions and employers within the petroleinn sector. In this paper we discuss the role of Safety Forum. ... 

The Safety Forum is the central arena for cooperation among the parties in the industry and the authorities concerning health, safety and environment in the petroleum activities on the Norwegian shelf and on land. The mandate of the forum is to initiate, discuss and follow up relevant safety issues, emergency preparedness and working environment issues in the petroleum industry, in a tripartite perspective. This involves consultation and follow-up closely of a number of key projects and processes, such as The risk level project , chemical health risk, and groups at risk... 

Today the tripartite collaboration in the petroleum industry is characterized by shared agreements and perceptions rather than conflicts. We find that there is developed a shared understanding concerning the risk level and priority arenas due to improvements among the different parties represented in the Safety Forum. In this way the forum has been a successfrd arena to bring the parties together to reflect on and discuss important safety issues. We will discuss this further in chapter 3. 

Collaborative practices in the petroleum industry Safety Forum... 

How do the parties describe and e q)erience the tripartite collaboration in Safety Forum Members of the forum meet regularly during a year. Issues, such as The risk level project , chemical health risk, and... 

The President of OLF, Tharald Brekne, had the following response to the Minister We welcome every initiative that can contribute to increased safety and better emergency preparedness. He also emphasises the importance of channelling this initiative through the established organisations ...if such a safety forum is administered by the NPD, I think it will be OK. Besides I have no further comments. ... 

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