BP tweaks VoO after complaints

After receiving quite a bit of criticism, the BP Vessels of Opportunity program aims to change some of its policies.

Intellectual Asset Specialist and overseer of the program Judith Paul said BP will begin to rotate employees and hire fishermen directly affected by the spill financially.

“We’re trying to put the local folks to work – people who have had a direct economic impact from the spill, and people who can’t do the work they normally do – the commercial fishermen, shrimpers, oystermen, charter boat captains,” said Paul. “We’ve definitely listened to what we’ve heard from the public, and we’re making that change.”

Previously, BP had hired recreational fishermen with primary sources of income other than fishing, causing many locals to complain that BP is hiring the wrong people.

Paul said the conglomerate will attempt to phase out the recreational fishermen through the new rotation process.

“We’re implementing a rotational policy, so that we can rotate out the recreational boats, except in very special circumstances where there may not be a commercial boat that meets the need,” she said. “We are going to put more people to work.”

Paul said BP has been calling everyone who currently has a boat working and is asking them for verification on what they do for a living.

If fishing is not their primary source of income, they will likely be rotated out of the program until everyone has had a chance to work.

“Then we’ll bring in another group to work, then they rotate off. Then we bring in a whole new group, so we’re trying to put as many boats into the system as we possibly can,” she said.

Day shifts range from eight to 12 hours and pay $200 a day per person for an eight-hour shift, prorated up to $300 for a 12-hour shift.

Boats work for two weeks to more than a month at a time, and once a boat is relieved, it is placed back in the pool of eligible boats waiting to receive a call.

With 900 boats currently working in the Gulf of Mexico and 3,200 in BP’s system, boat captains will more than likely spend more time sitting at home rather than working – but that’s the trade off Paul said it will take to get all of the boats to work.

About 350 boats currently work in the skimming fleet, and Paul said those are the only boats that will not be subject to a rotation.

“They’ve been working since the beginning. If we rotated them out, we would lose efficiency,” she said. “We would create safety hazards by placing inexperienced people out on the water and basically go back to day one with new people starting.”

But Paul said a greater number of jobs will be available because BP is increasing its number of task forces – teams of 25 boats.

She said fishermen do not have to worry about out of state competition, because even though four Mississippi boats were hired early in the process, BP is not accepting contracts from out of state boat owners anymore.

If any fisherman is waiting at home for a call and wondering where they stand on the list, Paul said they can call the Vessels of Opportunity Hotline at (985) 493-7840, and the operator can confirm that they are on the list and tell them where they are on it.

However, the operator will not be able to give the caller a timeframe on when they may be called to go to work.

“It’s difficult for us to do that, because there are so many different boats in the system and types of jobs,” she said. “So if someone from Fourchon calls us and says we need this job done and this is the kind of boats we need, the first thing we do is we look through Lafourche Parish. Then we look at what boats meet these operational requirements. Then we start calling from there, but we don’t know where the next job will come from or what specific boats are needed.”

BP staffer Judith Paul said employees will be rotated through the Vessels of Opportunity program in an effort to hire more fishermen directly hurt financially by the Horizon oil spill. COURTESY PHOTO

Petty Officer 3rd Class Ann Mari