Paragon Offshore employees from the Netherlands are taking their redundancy fight to Borr Drilling’s office in Aberdeen this week. The move follows hot on the heels of a similar demonstration at Borr’s headquarters in Oslo last week.

Employee grievances are over perceived “social dumping” and inadequate severance packages by Tor Olav Troim’s Borr, which completed a $232.5m takeover of Paragon in March.

A deputation of staff from the Dutch-based operation of Paragon and maritime trade union Nautilus are being joined in the Scottish city by members of the UK’s Unite and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, commonly referred to as the RMT union.

The deputation, representing more than 70 Dutch workers, is attempting to meet Darren Sutherland, Borr’s North Sea director, to deliver a petition calling for better redundancy packages and raising concerns over social dumping.

In Oslo, the deputation sought to give their petition to chairman Troim or director Fredrik Halvorsen, but no Borr executives were on the premises.

“We have been talking to Borr since May, and our efforts are focused on preventing dismissals,” Nautilus official Bert Klein said. “If redundancies cannot be avoided, as it seems now, the objective is to secure good redundancy terms that must at least comply with what is normally agreed. A company that wants to present itself as a world player, in our opinion, should adopt a positive attitude when it comes to parting with employees.”

Klein added: “At the same time, Borr is searching for new talent on its website. This is at odds with Borr management’s claims that there is no work for Paragon staff any more, and it seems to be social dumping.”

The petitioners told TradeWinds at the demonstration in Oslo that they believe Borr has failed to live up to Norway’s reputation for high standards in corporate social responsibility.

“I’ve been working 33 years offshore and 27 years at the company," Paragon offshore installation manager Marco Vosse, 51, told TradeWinds at the Oslo event. "The plan Borr has to get rid of us is paying the cheapest of the cheapest. I’m not going away for the cheapest-cheapest, because on one side they want to hire new people and on the other side they want to dump experienced people.”