Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom. They have recently told their current IT contractors that they must take a 15% reduction in pay or be forced to leave.
Shell have argued that due to market volatility, they are forced to make cuts across the whole business. A Shell spokesperson has argued that IT contractors shouldn’t feel singled out as they are “pursuing a number of other initiatives to cut costs”, which comes as little consolation to the effected contractors.
When questioned, the spokesperson declined to comment on how they came up with the 15% figure, even when reminded that BP has reduced contractors rates by the same margin. This news comes after Shell has announced they would be cutting 250 jobs from its North Sea operations. They have said:
“Shell UK plans to reduce the number of staff and agency contractors who support the company’s UK North Sea operations by at least 250 in 2015.”
The announcement follows North Sea job cuts by BP, Talisman Sinopec, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
Britain’s North Sea oil and gas sector employs over 400,000 people and is worth about £5 billion a year to the state. But investment activity has stalled due to a combination of high costs, high taxes and falling oil prices.
Many contractors who were interviewed following the announcement of the cut have said that when their contracts are up they plan on leaving. One contractor has said:
“We have just 2 days to accept the cut or leave. Little does the CEO know that I will be leaving, so it will be interesting to see what happens.”
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