Norway's government ordered an immediate end to an eight-day oil and gas strike on Friday, averting a total shutdown of output by the world's number three crude exporter.
"Such an escalation...would have entailed huge economic consequences to society," Social and Labour Affairs Minister Dagfinn Hoybraaten said after invoking emergency laws to foil the threatened shutdown from Monday night.
Unions said they would bow to the back-to-work order but accused Oslo of violating United Nations conventions on labour rights. The strike, over pensions and job security, has been choking off 375,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Norway's 3.0 million bpd output.
Employers had threatened to escalate the dispute by locking out about 3,000 union workers from jobs from 2200 GMT on Monday, closing nearly all Norway's oil and gas wells in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea.
Unions accused employers of threatening a lockout while knowing full well that the centre-right government would then impose mandatory arbitration under Norwegian laws allowing intervention when the economy is under threat.
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