Offshore deductions?

[Kart46]

Hi all.

So a new one for me. Started at a new company which is a series of onshore work and offshore work...

Upon completing a 2 week stint offshore I have received My payslip and have a deduction "offshore deductions"

Bassicly I have had 10 days (onshore pay) 5 days mon-fri x2 removed from my pay. Therefore I am only about £20 better off perday going offshore. It works out at about £160 offshore per day. Imo that's pretty bad offshore wage.

Its not like its simple work either, pneumatic and offshore survival equipment servicing...

Has anyone heard about this before? And can share some advice before I go and cause a fuss to HR.

Cheers

[justin220]

It'll really depend on your contract.

We've had quite a few offshore with us, who only get paid additional for weekend days only. So if they work say two weeks offshore rather than 10 days mon-fri in the office they get 4 days OT.

Ive also seen a day uplift, so normal onshore wage plus an offshore allowance per night.

Again, lots of different contracts out there

[Kart46]

So I just checked my contact and at no point does it state that they will remove your onshore day rate from your offshore day rate...

For example £140 day rate (onshore)
£290 offshore rate

Then £140 deduction meaning your offshore rate is really only £150...

So in realty your only making £10/20 more per day working offshore, surely that can't be right.

If it is I'm jumping ship 🤣

[GT03ROB]

Do you get the 290 on the Saturday & Sundays?

[JoeRRS]

Thats a new one to me, we tend to have certain roles where there is an onshore rate and offshore rate with offshore always higher.

Certainly never seen offshore rate minus onshore rate that would not be happening for me or any of the guys that I work with.

[Kart46]

GT03ROB said:

Do you get the 290 on the Saturday & Sundays?

So on Saturdays I would get £310 and Sundays I would bet £340... no deductions as I wouldn't be working onshore on Saturdays and Sundays... it seems very backwards to me

[Kart46]

JoeRRS said:

Thats a new one to me, we tend to have certain roles where there is an onshore rate and offshore rate with offshore always higher.

Certainly never seen offshore rate minus onshore rate that would not be happening for me or any of the guys that I work with.

I think it's time to contact HR...

[RichTT]

Kart46 said:

So I just checked my contact and at no point does it state that they will remove your onshore day rate from your offshore day rate...

For example £140 day rate (onshore)
£290 offshore rate

Then £140 deduction meaning your offshore rate is really only £150...

So in realty your only making £10/20 more per day working offshore, surely that can't be right.

If it is I'm jumping ship ??

Been in the industry 20+ years. Never heard anything like that before.

[Sheepshanks]

Kart46 said:

Bassicly I have had 10 days (onshore pay) 5 days mon-fri x2 removed from my pay. Therefore I am only about £20 better off perday going offshore. It works out at about £160 offshore per day.

It’s not a case of them paying you the onshore rate every day by default for the month, then taking off the offshore days, is it?

One of my daughters had a job where she worked shifts that included weekends and they did something like that - they removed her standard day rate if her shifts fell on Sat/Sun, but paid the weekend hours rate. They forgot one month and she got paid nearly twice as much as usual. She told them but it never got corrected.

[Kart46]

So the timesheet says offshore rate is 16.5 hrs @ standard rate + £50 (Mon fri)

Saturday: 4 hours at 1.5x and then 8 hours at 2x + £50

Sunday: 12 hours at 2x +£50

---

‐-------------------------------------------
So for easy counting say it's £10 a hour.

Offshore Dayrate would be £165 + 50 = £215 (mon fri)
Onshore dayrate would be £80

So £215 - 80 (deduction) = £135 true offshore day rate. (Mon - fri)

I am really miffed here as I've never been told this prior to accepting the job and I'm sure there is something in the UK law that states a employer cannot deduct any earnings unless agreed upon or loss of earnings due to a fault of your own.

I have worked it out and if I were to do my standard rate + 4 hours OT and book a "away from home allowance" I would be better off than booking a offshore day. (As I wouldn't have the "offshore deductions")


- apologies if I have made that a nightmare to understand

[parabolica]

Only answer is to speak to your manager or HR to get a full explanation as to how time/allowances are handled. Unlawful deduction of wages applies to deductions which are not previously disclosed; if your employer has published how they treat these allowances (i.e. written in your contract or the employee handbook or some other policy that is available to all staff) then they are free to deduct wages in accordance with that guidance.

I'm O&G too and I've never heard of your situation before; speak to your manager or HR about it and figure out what you want to do about it from there.

Is this your first pay check from them? When did you start and what are the relevant pay periods for the payslips? Is it a full month in arrears, mid-month to mid-month or month just worked?

[GT03ROB]

Kart46 said:

So the timesheet says offshore rate is 16.5 hrs @ standard rate + £50 (Mon fri)

Saturday: 4 hours at 1.5x and then 8 hours at 2x + £50

Sunday: 12 hours at 2x +£50

---

?-------------------------------------------
So for easy counting say it's £10 a hour.

Offshore Dayrate would be £165 + 50 = £215 (mon fri)
Onshore dayrate would be £80

So £215 - 80 (deduction) = £135 true offshore day rate. (Mon - fri)

I am really miffed here as I've never been told this prior to accepting the job and I'm sure there is something in the UK law that states a employer cannot deduct any earnings unless agreed upon or loss of earnings due to a fault of your own.

I have worked it out and if I were to do my standard rate + 4 hours OT and book a "away from home allowance" I would be better off than booking a offshore day. (As I wouldn't have the "offshore deductions")


- apologies if I have made that a nightmare to understand

The deduct bit seems a bit odd to say the least. What does your actual contract say about paid hours?

Presumably you have a standard 40hr work week,

It should then have a section dealing with periods offshore that states what are the paid hours & the rate those are paid at.

It could all just be a mistake so don;t go in all guns blazing. Take your contract & your payslip then ask them to expalin how one gives the other.

[Piersman2]

OP, is your understanding that you should get the day rate AND the offshore rate when you're offshore?

So based on your numbers above (IIRC) £140 + £290?

The way you've described it seems to me is that when working offshore you get the offshore rate , which is roughly double the onshore rate.

My assumption would be in that case is that your time sheet is showing the 5 days worked offshore at £290 each day, and because you've been offshore they've removed 5 days of onshore at £140 each day. Not sure why they'd show that on a timesheet unless they start with a pre-filled onshore rate in each standard day.

OR do you fill in your time sheet and have added both onshore and offshore rates on the same day and they've corrected it?

[Sheepshanks]

Kart46 said:

So for easy counting say it's £10 a hour.

Offshore Dayrate would be £165 + 50 = £215 (mon fri)
Onshore dayrate would be £80

So £215 - 80 (deduction) = £135 true offshore day rate. (Mon - fri)

On the face of it the deduction only makes sense if your pay includes the Onshore rate for every day by default - so it gives you a basic salary if you did nothing else but Onshore work.

Then, for every Offshore day you do, they pay an Offshore day, but deduct an Onshore day - otherwise you'd get both.

If it's not that, then sounds like they've messed up. Or they've conned you.

[AndyAudi]

Kart46 said:

So I just checked my contact and at no point does it state that they will remove your onshore day rate from your offshore day rate...

For example £140 day rate (onshore)
£290 offshore rate

Then £140 deduction meaning your offshore rate is really only £150...

So in realty you’re only making £10/20 more per day working offshore, surely that can't be right.

Are you confusing offshore “Rate” with offshore “Bonus”

We had employees get paid at a very basic rate then when offshore got a bonus for that time added on.

However You have described two rates, one you get when onshore & the other offshore. (Which may make sense if your job is both onshore & offshore at times rather than a more traditional offshore rotation)

It does sound like you’ve potentially had a whole month figure on you pay at onshore rates, then they’ve possibly swapped the offshore days. Paying you £290 instead of £140.

Check this 1st before all guns blazing, is your total pay on your payslip the same as below (regardless of how they show their workings)

No of days onshore x £140
+
No of days offshore x £290

If it’s wildly short, query it, if it’s not you’re probably being paid correctly for the days you work at each location.

[The_Nugget]

Kart46 said:

If it is I'm jumping ship ??

Just make sure you are onshore when you do that though.

[Laplace]

Does your wageslip show a base salary paid, to which they have added the full offshore days as OT payments?

That's the only way it would make sense to me. If that's what they have done then they would rightly remove the "onshore" rate as that's been paid in the base salary.

It would be a clunky way of doing it but I wouldn't be surprised.

When I was in the service industry in the North Sea we were paid 18hrs a day. This was paid at X10 hours OT per offshore day as the base salary made up the other 8. Weekend days paid at the full x18 hours.

[MickC]

Laplace said:

Does your wageslip show a base salary paid, to which they have added the full offshore days as OT payments?

That's the only way it would make sense to me. If that's what they have done then they would rightly remove the "onshore" rate as that's been paid in the base salary.

It would be a clunky way of doing it but I wouldn't be surprised.

When I was in the service industry in the North Sea we were paid 18hrs a day. This was paid at X10 hours OT per offshore day as the base salary made up the other 8. Weekend days paid at the full x18 hours.

Yes the only way it makes sense is if they have already paid you the 'offshore' day somehow (as normal monthly salary, on another line etc). If that is the case they need to take the 140 off and pay you the 290 for every weekday you work offshore, and an extra 290 (x1.5/x2 etc) for non working days worked offshore.

If they are just taking the onshore rate back again without paying you, that's really weird and probably a mistake.