and the industry has scaled back production, many of the safety measures that companies have implemented to protect workers, have, ironically, hurt them more.
Although the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that oversees offshore safety in the U.S., requires companies to screen employees with questionnaires and temperature checks before bringing them to the rig, the oil companies have mostly been allowed to create their own safety regulations. At Shell, this has included reducing staff on each rig and extending each employee’s rotation on that rig.
“I needed to get home to my kids, that’s what’s important to me as a man. That’s why I work every day,” Fults said. In March, Valaris emailed an updated pay schedule to employees that reflected the new safety standards intended to reduce the virus’s transmission. Employees who worked on a rig beyond the traditional 14-day period would receive overtime. But most other employees would see salary cuts of more than 80 percent, from those who did not want to risk traveling to the rig to those who flouted safety guidelines at home.Valaris did not respond to a request for comment.