News / Workers ‘struggling to behave like humans’
A LERWICK chippy has taken down a poster that stated there was limit on the amount of oil and gas workers allowed on the premises at same time.
The Harbour Fish & Chip Shop recently put up a poster in its window confirming that it would not allow “more than four” employees from Morrison Construction, Petrofac and Wood Group in their shop at any one time.
This was due to a “minority of grown men struggling to behave like humans”.
It came as Police Scotland issued an appeal for witnesses to an alleged assault in the fish and chip shop at 10.50pm on Sunday.
The original poster gained national attention after being posted on Facebook page The Rig Workers Rant.
It was accompanied by a message that was disparaging towards visiting construction workers and local women: “Racial abuse and grown men fighting is never a good company image. I suppose this is what happens when you thump 2,000 ex-convicts together as construction contractors on an island where the sheep are more appealing than the women!”
However, the shop sign has now been removed, with a new one put up alerting customers to the presence of CCTV cameras.
The fish and chip shop added in the new poster that staff won’t “hesitate to give footage to Police Scotland”, as well as the individual’s employer.
Staff at the shop declined to comment, but confirmed that the original poster has been taken down.
The shop’s location – Harrison Square – means it is popular with nearby workers on Victoria Pier’s accommodation vessels.
When contacted by Shetland News for a response on the original poster, the three companies in question all said that the behaviour of their workforce was of paramount importance.
A spokeswoman for Morrison Construction said: “While we have received no direct reports that our own operatives have been involved in any recent incidents, Morrison Construction takes the behaviour of its staff and their conduct within the wider community very seriously.
“As a result we are reiterating to all of our operatives in Lerwick the standard of behaviour expected of them and we will not tolerate any actions that cause distress to the local community.
“We will continue to strive to maintain good relations with the wider community wherever possible and ask anybody who does have a concern to contact us as soon as possible.”
A Petrofac spokesman stated: “We take our responsibilities to the Shetland community extremely seriously and make every effort to impress them on our staff and those of our contractors.
“This includes strict guidelines for appropriate behaviour on and off-site. If we find evidence that these guidelines have been breached then appropriate action will be taken.”
Wood Group added: “Wood Group PSN respects all the communities in which we operate and any breach of acceptable behaviour by our workforce would result in us taking appropriate action.”
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