Employment and Labor Relations

Our ambition is to attract, engage, develop, and retain a highly skilled workforce. We are committed to recruiting individuals based on their qualifications, value, and potential. Diversity is considered an important parameter in recruitment. We provide attractive and fair compensation and benefits packages that support our overall employee value proposition.

The year 2020 was about company survival. We hired 27 employees, while 333, unfortunately, had to leave the Company. All employees that were considered for termination, underwent a consultation period where a notice was given of one to five weeks prior to their consultation meeting. Although not a legal requirement, the employees were encouraged to bring representatives to support them in the consultation meeting. In most cases, the meetings were attended by the employee, their immediate manager, an HR representative, and the representative of the employee. 

Once a termination agreement was reached, the affected employees were offered outplacement support, which included a transition-assistance program aimed at ensuring their continued employability. A total of 147 people used the services of the external outplacement support company.

Occupational Health and Safety

Seismic operations encompass many high-risk activities and involve working in remote areas and locations with elevated health and security risks. Our health and safety management system is structured around the ‘Plan-Do-Act-Check’ model for continuous improvement, as defined by the IAGC/IOGP Guidelines, and is certified according to the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards. 

Management of health and safety in PGS is a line-management responsibility. Our HSEQ department consists of subject-matter experts within maritime, quality, environment, and security, who support and advise line management and crew.

Our ambition is zero injury to people. We are committed to:

• Promoting good health and well-being for all people involved in our operations.
• Preventing injuries and ill health, providing safe and healthy working conditions
• Promoting safe behavior and empowering our colleagues to lead by example

We continuously work to ensure that we act responsibly and are accountable for our actions. Our procedures to stop any unsafe work are firm and encourage intervention, we prohibit the possession and consumption of illegal substances and alcohol at worksites. These commitments exist because they are in the best interest of PGS employees and stakeholders and are essential for the long-term business success of the Company.

Hazard Identification and Risk Management

In 2020, we updated the PGS Risk Register to capture and identify any changes in identified major hazards in the workplace. The register provides an overview of all processes and the pre-and post-mitigation risk. For each process, the hazard, risk, controls, and recovery measures are identified. The controls are split into administrative controls, engineering controls, and procedures. All these hazards and risks are regulated by our integrated management system (IMS). The IMS consists of a set of procedures and work instructions. The operational procedures and work instructions have been developed by crew members and support functions within PGS. Safety-critical tasks that are vessel-specific have been developed using risk assessment techniques and job safety analysis.

PGS crewmembers carry out job safety analysis and risk assessments for all safety-critical tasks where the hazards and control measures need to be assessed. These processes are used to verify the hazard management of established procedures or work instructions.

• Examples of the most common areas where hazards are identified include:
• Routine jobs that have a potential for serious incidents
• Routine jobs that have a history of incidents, including near misses
• New jobs or jobs introducing new work methods (e.g. introduction of new equipment)
• Non-routine or “one-off” jobs that have a potential for incidents

We have remedial plans in place for operations, which are logged in the PGS HSEQ reporting system with action-holder and target-date. This plan is reviewed annually and controlled by setting key performance indicators for the relevant stakeholders.

Managing the Covid-19 Crisis

PGS has monitored developments closely since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and taken prompt and proactive actions to manage the situation as it affects our business. We operate in compliance with all national and international authorities and regulations regarding implemented restrictions on travel, quarantine, and isolation. We are supported by International SOS, our medical and security services provider, and work closely with our industry network and clients to ensure we have the best situational awareness and response.

To ensure the safety of our employees and business continuity through the pandemic, we have implemented strict protocols to prevent an outbreak of Covid-19 in our offices and in particular on our vessels. Everyone traveling to a PGS vessel is subject to strict quarantine and test requirements before being allowed to board. In the absence of national guidelines, all personnel are required to undergo a minimum of seven (7) days of quarantine and return a negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test before boarding.

After boarding, an additional seven-day precautionary period of social distancing, with face masks and strict hygiene measures, is implemented. The modern and spacious design of our vessels makes it possible for the crew to sustain operations while maintaining a safe distance. After 14 days since starting the quarantine, if no one is exhibiting any symptoms indicating Covid-19, all measures are lifted and the vessel can operate as normal.

We do our utmost to keep our crews safe. As our understanding of the disease is constantly evolving, we are continuously adjusting our strict onboard mitigations.

In 2020, we had zero incidents of personnel with Covid-19 onboard our vessels during seismic surveys.

Training and Education

PGS provides, promotes, and encourages learning and development opportunities for all employees. We make sure that employees understand their role and that performance and development goals are defined and followed-up through dialog and feedback.

Our performance management process is designed to help people perform at their best by motivating them to achieve or surpass their goals. The process is designed to be fair, transparent, and consistent, clearly linking reward to individual performance. A formal performance discussion between the employee and their manager is held at least once a year, in which goals, execution, and development needs are reviewed.

We identify talented employees by evaluating and discussing their potential at a senior level across business units. The results from our employee survey have highlighted that improving professional and personal development is important. We are concentrating our efforts to further improve our processes. 

To upgrade employee skills and enhance our talent development opportunities, we are taking the following actions: 

• Coaching managers and employees
• Offering temporary assignments to stretch peoples’ capabilities, in their current location or another office
• Focusing on internal recruitment to fill vacancies
• In some cases, offering special services from external consultants to support individuals and groups and ensure development to meet individual and collective business needs.