A baby? Sorry but you can’t bring that in here...
Oil conference safety ban on three-month-old Islay
WHEN oil recruitment executive Eva Hagan had to interrupt her maternity leave to attend a major conference, taking her three-month-old daughter Islay with her seemed an obvious choice.
The 31- year- old mother strapped her into a chest sling and prepared for a day of networking and talks.
But staff at the Offshore Europe event in Aberdeen had other ideas.
Mrs Hagan was stunned to be told the baby would not be allowed in for health and safety reasons. After going inside, she was twice asked to leave before finally venting her frustration on networking website LinkedIn.
Mrs Hagan said: ‘ Extremely disappointed to have been asked to leave Offshore Europe for health and safety reasons as I had my baby with me in a sling.
‘Surely this is the image of women in the industry we want to inspire others, rather than PR girls in hot pants?’
Mrs Hagan is a senior member of staff at Maersk Oil and manages the hiring of engineering and legal staff across the UK.
Outside the event, she also posted a picture on Instagram of her holding her entry pass and baby Islay in a sling.
Mrs Hagan said it was taken ‘after not being made to feel very welcome at Offshore Europe’.
Anne Marie O’Leary, editor in chief of parenting site Netmums, said: ‘Taking a three-month-old baby to a conference is very different to taking a toddler or a teenager and the organisers should be able to recognise this.
‘At a time when female MPs are encouraged to take babies into the House of Commons to make the political system more inclu- sive, there is no reason why other sectors cannot follow suit.’
Alys Mumford, from Engender, a women’s research and networking group in Scotland, said: ‘ This is really disappointing news and shows the oil and gas industry still has a long way to go to meet its stated aim of i ncreasing the numbers of women in its workforce.
‘This is not about whether or not advance notice was given
‘Industry still has a long way to go’
about the age limit, but about why the organisers of the conference had not considered options to ensure there were not barriers to parents attending.
‘Having a crèche or other childcare provision at events should be standard practice by now, particularly in i ndustries which are struggling to attract women.’
The conference, one of the world’s largest exhibitions for the offshore energy and petroleum industry, ran from Tuesday to Friday l ast week. It was attended by some of the biggest companies and business executives in the oil and gas sector.
The event is run by Reed Exhibitions, which handled the security. Vasyl Zhygalo, senior exhibition director for Reed Exhibitions, said: ‘ Offshore Europe is a business conference and exhibition. As such, we have a clearly- stated policy of no entry to under-16s, advertised six months in advance of the event and agreed to by all registrants.’
A report by PwC in February revealed that more than twothirds of the UK’s 100 biggest energy companies fail to count a single woman on their boards. The study described the findings as ‘appalling’.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Scottish Labour said: ‘ The oil and gas sector has been criticised before about its treatment of female workers and this experience raises further concerns.
‘It may be time for Offshore Europe to look again at this policy so that it does not put off women with young children from attending the event i n the future.’