CASUAL WORKERS in oil and services company have sent a Save-Our-Souls (SOS) message to the Federal Government concerning the “demeaning human labour” which thousands of them are being subjected by oil companies operating in the country.
The Forum of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) complained that the Shell Petroleum Development Company plans to sack about 5,000 for no other reason than being contract staff.
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt on behalf of the Forum of NUPENG by Comrades Amoshuka Daniel and Cajetan Akpan, Chairman and Secretary respectively of the group, they lamented that workers who have diligently worked for the company for over 10 years risk being sacked with just a meagre N20,000 as pay-off benefit.
They also complained that a similar scenario is playing out in Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), which is planning to lay off about 3,000 contract workers.
The forum said the plan was perfected "in connivance with some well-placed officers in Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) who are party to the plan to replace these contractors partnering with CNL since the Gulf years.”
It further claimed that the plan is aimed at replacing the staff with newly-created service contracts "with drastically reduced remuneration packages.”
The union leaders said bids are clandestinely being made to award the contracts to "privately owned companies of these managers in proxy both in CNL and NNPC in a bid to enrich themselves further while impoverishing the workforce.”
The oil workers also lamented that the condition of service being given to Nigerians in their own country is in contrast with what is given to their counterparts in Angola, South Africa and the USA where most of these companies have their origins.
They, therefore, called on the Federal Government and other relevant ministries and agencies to urgently intervene in the matter with a view to stopping the plot, otherwise the companies “should be ready for what will follow.”

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