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Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, Ernesto Ke­sar, will lead an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to re­ports of a sick­out at the Teak, Samaan, and Poui (TSP) fields.

In a me­dia re­lease on Thurs­day, the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries (MEEI) said the en­quiry aims to up­hold work­ers’ pro­tec­tion stan­dards while avoid­ing dis­rup­tions to on­go­ing ex­plo­ration and pro­duc­tion. The probe fol­lows a week-long co­or­di­nat­ed protest by around 25 pro­duc­tion op­er­a­tors across nine off­shore plat­forms in the TSP fields. Work­ers staged the sick­out to draw at­ten­tion, to what they called, poor work­ing con­di­tions, in­clud­ing de­layed salary pay­ments, lack of med­ical and life in­sur­ance, in­ad­e­quate per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment, and poor com­mu­ni­ca­tion from man­age­ment.

Al­though Peren­co op­er­ates the plat­forms, the af­fect­ed work­ers are sub­con­tract­ed through Sookhai En­gi­neer­ing and Rental Ser­vices Ltd (SER­SL). Em­ploy­ees claimed hourly wages as low as $70, with de­lays of up to nine weeks in pay­ment and fre­quent is­sues sur­round­ing sev­er­ance pay. While SER­SL de­nies any pro­duc­tion loss­es, work­ers claim out­put has fall­en. They are now call­ing for in­ter­ven­tion from Peren­co, trade unions, or the MEEI.