A lawyer representing offshore oil workers at the Wells inquiry into offshore helicopter safety says it isn't good enough for the offshore industry to meet regulated safety standards.

Industry should exceed those standards, Randy Earle, representing more than 700 of the province's 1,200 offshore workers, said during a break in the St. John's inquiry.

"I think the proper approach is that you are constantly challenging the regulations and trying to do better," Earle said. "That's what we have to do if we are going to have the maximum safety available in the offshore."

But this is not what's happening in Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil industry now, he said.

"Workers have made complaints about issues like the immersion suits and have been told: ‘they meet government standards.'" said Earle, who questioned a representative of the federal Transportation Safety Board at the inquiry on Wednesday.

The inquiry was established by the Canada Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board after 17 people died when a Sikorsky S-92A chopper, operated by Cougar Helicopters, crashed into the ocean 55 kilometers southeast of St. John’s.

Transportation Safety Board director Wendy Tadros agreed with Earle's concerns and added that safety standards that don’t work should be fixed.

"If the regulation itself is deficient then that is something that we will look at and we will point out," she said.

Tadros said she can't comment on the board's continuing investigation of the crash of Cougar flight 491.

The board, which investigates accidents and makes recommendations about how to make travel by rail, air, road and sea safer, is still months away from filing a draft report on the helicopter crash, she said.

The inquiry led by former Supreme Court justice Robert Wells has adjourned until Monday.