THE Warri Zone of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas, NUPENG, covering Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Kogi and Ondo states, yesterday, warned of a major workers strike in the zone over alleged failure by Chevron Nigeria Limited to pay severance entitlements and pension to displaced contract staff.
The zone’s chairman of NUPENG, Cogent Ojobor, at the Chevron yard in Ekpan, Uvwie Local Government Area, Delta State where the aggrieved workers held a protest, said “At different fora, Chevron has admitted owing the workers, but from two weeks to more than 12 months running, commitment to pay the entitlements has repeatedly not been honoured. For now, it is a peaceful protest but it may turn to an industrial action if lack of reasoning by Chevron pushes us to that limit.
“When it gets to that, we will shut fuel supply, we will cut down supply of gas to power generating plants and BEDC may go down again and the economy will be affected and people we start saying that NUPENG is at it again. This is no idle threat.”
Patrick Gbetah who explained the workers’ plight, said “Under the collective engagement bargaining with Chevron and its contractors under which we work, we are entitled to end of contract bonus, redundancy and pension benefits in case of disengagement.
“For over 12 months, most of us have been disengaged in the name of transition without these benefits paid. Those made to go back to work are also asking to access our pension fund over which several sums had been deducted from our salaries while we were engaged.
“At Premium Pensions, the firm overseeing our pension, we were told that without termination or redundancy letters, we cannot access our pension account. We sought the termination and redundancy letters from Chevron, they say it is the contractor that should give it to us. We ask the contractors, they say it is Chevron.”
Gbetah said the protest against Chevron was to let the public know their plight and for relevant stakeholders including federal and the Delta State government to intervene and resolve the lingering issues which they say are adversely affecting their respective families.
Efforts to reach Chevron management and media interfaces proved abortive at press time as calls and text enquiries sent to him were not replied.
