CRAIG BROWN (crbrown@scotsman.com)

THOUSANDS of offshore workers could be in for a change to their holiday rights after a series of tribunal claims on behalf of oil and gas employees.

More than 300 oil industry workers have brought claims against their employers in a long-running dispute over annual leave entitlement. If successful, it will have a knock-on effect on up to 7,000 workers.

The claimants - caterers and drillers - say that their typical two weeks on, two weeks off rota does not meet European Union laws that guarantee employees four weeks paid holiday a year.

They insist they are due four weeks of paid holiday on top of their time off between shift rotations, and that these holidays should be taken during times when they would normally be working offshore.

But Oil and Gas UK, which represents the employers, argues the staff already get "generous" time off.

Yesterday, seven test cases were heard at the Aberdeen tribunal and, if these are successful, the remaining claims could be heard.

Oil industry employers said the test tribunals would provide much-needed clarity on how the EU's working-time legislation should be applied to offshore workers.

Chris Allen, a director at Oil & Gas UK, said: "It is time that everyone in the industry had certainty on this issue, which deals with holiday entitlement and other matters.

"Everyone knows that offshore workers in the UK oil and gas industry enjoy above-average employment terms and conditions, and typically have at least 26 weeks off a year.

"We believe this amount of time off more than meets the legal amount of annual leave that employers must provide their employees, which is four weeks. Unfortunately, the way the legislation has been drafted for the offshore sector has allowed this view to be challenged and all sides need complete clarity."

The employers claim any change would create safety issues that would give large sections of North Sea production "no option but to close down".

But Graham Tran,of the union United Amicus, said: "We are in the business of job stability for our workers, and there's just no way that we, as a trade union, would go down a road that would lead to the closure of the fields. It's scaremongering and, quite frankly, the employers should be ashamed of themselves."

Google funds drive to turn green energy into gold

Google has announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make renewable energy cheaper than using coal.

The internet giant said that it was hiring dozens of engineers and seeking investment to improve the technology to harness solar, wind and geothermal energy.

Google will use the power to run its offices in Silicon Valley, California. Excess energy will be sold back to the US electricity grid.

Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, said: "We see a plausible path to much lower energy costs and we just want to get people working on that now."

The plan comes as oil prices reach £50 a barrel and coal - which generates 40 per cent of the world's electricity - faces regulatory and environmental pressures that could make it more expensive. Google also plans to license any resulting technologies worldwide.

Larry Brilliant, the head of its philanthropic arm, said: "As Google grows, we don't want our core business to be part of the problem. We want to be part of the solution."