Health, Safety and Environment

Omega’s goal is to avoid incidents, injuries and losses completely. This includes personal injury and environmental damage. We believe all accidents have a cause, and can be avoided through the systematic and careful implementation of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) measures. In addition to avoiding incidents, injuries and losses, our commitment to HSE contributes to promoting welfare and job satisfaction among our employees, stimulating the individual employee’s professional and personal growth, and detecting improving unsatisfactory work conditions.

Workplace Training

In order to achieve our primary goal of no injuries, Omega focuses on risk control, accident prevention and training. All new employees undergo an interactive HSE course with exams. The course shall at all times meet the requirements of the oil & gas industry, and it is the same course given to all oil & gas personnel going offshore. In addition to this, all personnel are given the following training:

• HSE policy and practice at Omega
• Emergency plan at Omega
• General HSE requirements at Omega

Furthermore, employees have annual discussions with their Business Unit Manager, and updates with HSE tips and reminders are sent out via e-mail and intranet on a regular basis.

Being An Inclusive Workplace

Inkluderende Arbeidsliv (IA) or Inclusive Workplace (IW) is an initiative from the government (NAV – Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organisation) and the working life organisations Landsorganisasjonen and Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon). It is an agreement between the employer and NAV designed to give everyone who wants to, and is able to, a chance to work. One of the main goals of the agreement is to reduce sick leave. Other goals with IW are to secure employment for employees with impaired capacity, and to increase the average age of retirement from working life.

Omega committed to the agreement in May 2004, and has already seen the benefits. Statistics showed that Omega reduced their sick leave percentage from over three per cent to less than two per cent after the agreement was effectuated. Our company will remain devoted to implementing and carrying through means to enforce a strong IW commitment. These will include, among others:

• ensuring that management keeps an HSE and IW focus on every meeting
• increasing the unit managers’ competence at handling work-related sickness, and methods to prevent such
• closer follow-up of employees on sick leave
• draw up routines for a good working environment in cooperation with the employees
• emphasize teambuilding activities
• stimulate physical activity and exercise

Preventing Substance Abuse

Omega is strongly committed to being an AKAN company (AKAN – The resource centre for substance abuse and addiction problems). This means the Substance Abuse Policy will be an important supplement to the HSE policy. The benefits of this are numerous. First and foremost, safety is the primary concern of Omega, and substance use and abuse is a serious threat to our safe operations. It also contributes to lower employee morale and it weakens the company’s reputation.

The Substance Abuse Policy and corresponding efforts are effective tools not only to prevent substance abuse in the workplace, but also to help employees with substance abuse issues. The department managers have full confidentiality in issues of this nature. Omega has appointed an AKAN contact out of the AMU committee to assist department managers in the AKAN work.

Focus On Ethics

Omega employees are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity, and are therefore required to familiarise themselves with the Ethics Policy. Our company’s Ethics Policy is built around our core values; respect for the individual, uncompromising integrity, honesty and reliability. Some of the employees’ responsibilities under the Ethics Policy are:

• abiding by applicable laws, regulations and policies
• actively promoting honesty and integrity
• maintaining impartiality in all business dealings
• not engaging in corrupt activity or permitting bribery
• reporting potential conflicts of interest to management as soon as possible

Emergency Plan

Prevention of harmful incidents is key in the HSE work at Omega. However, if an emergency should occur, we have an extensive and detailed plan in place for handling the situation. There is an ordered list of persons who should get the first notice, and all incidents are reported and evaluated at management meetings.

Leading By Example

All management activities at Omega have an HSE focus. The meeting agenda invariably contains HSE-related items, and the superior perspective in all decisions made is on Health, Safety and Environment.

Promoting Health And Fitness

A vital aspect of our HSE commitment is to promote our employees’ physical fitness. By encouraging physical activity, we try to secure a healthier, happier and more productive staff. Omega endorses activity by letting our employees fill in their exercise hours on a weekly basis, and receive points through our Advantage+ programme. Omega also has many groups gathering for sports such as football, volleyball and field hockey. The health benefit of promoting physical activity is great, and we see results in reduced sick leave and healthier staff.