“Lose Weight or Lose Your Jobs” Rule Could Leave Thousands of Workers Grounded

A major safety change is coming to the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry, and not everyone is happy about it. Starting next November, workers heading out to rigs will face a new maximum clothed weight limit of 124.7 kilograms, or about 19 and a half stone, according to Offshore Energies UK (OEUK). The rule is meant to make helicopter rescues safer, but many workers reportedly worry it could cost them their jobs.

The new policy comes from a review by industry experts and follows a warning from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) that rescue winches can’t safely lift heavier people. The standard Coastguard helicopter winch can carry up to 249 kilograms, which includes a worker’s weight plus the 90.3 kilograms of the rescue operator, a 29-kilogram stretcher, and 5 kilograms of essential gear.

OEUK estimates that more than 2,200 offshore workers are currently over the new limit. If they can’t meet the requirement, some could find themselves unable to work offshore. “It will affect the pool available to go offshore, there’s a lot of us out there, and sadly it’s just the way that it’s going to go, that people will start losing their jobs, which is not good for anybody,” offshore worker Phil Perry told BBC Scotland News.
Perry, 42, from Aberdeen, has been working hard to lose weight ahead of the change.

At one point, he weighed 129 kilograms, but he’s now down to 118 and aiming for 110. He said the fear of being grounded motivated him to slim down. “There’s not a lot of people talking about it offshore yet,” he said. “You’ve kind of got to understand that back in the 70s and the 80s the average person was about 70-odd kilos, it’s obviously going in an upward trend. I think you maybe have to do something about that, because you don’t want to be the one stranded there because you’re too heavy to be lifted out.”

The average weight of offshore workers has increased by nearly 10 kilograms since 2008, according to OEUK. The group says the new rule is about safety, not discrimination, and follows previous changes that accounted for workers’ shoulder width during helicopter travel. Those with broader shoulders were already required to sit next to larger windows to ensure a quick escape in emergencies.

Perry said that while life offshore can be physically demanding, it’s still possible to stay healthy. “There are a lot of healthy people offshore, there are gyms, you can go for a walk round the helideck, you can be fit there, I think it just comes down to personal mindset of each individual,” he said. “Everybody can lose weight, it’s keeping it off that’s the hard thing.”

With the rule set to take effect in less than a year, many workers are now weighing their options — literally — as they try to adapt to a new standard that could reshape who gets to work offshore.