Contract staff of Chevron Nigeria Limited in Delta State has been slammed with huge pay cuts following obvious rationalization being embarked upon by the company, despite denials by an official of the multinational oil giant (name withheld) that Chevron has nothing to do with the pay-cut.
The official of the company who is a staff of PGPA department told Fresh Angle in an exclusive telephone chat that the huge pay slash which “has nothing to do with Chevron” is occasioned by the December 2012 end of contract of six major contracting firm popularly called the “big six”.
According to him, NAPIMS, a subsidiary of NNPC waded into the issue and asked the “new firms” who took over the contracts to pay – off the existing staff huge sums of money running into millions, depending on the number of years they have already worked and start fresh employment terms with those who are willing to continue.
The CNL staff who would not want to be dragged into whether the looming crisis in Nigeria’s oil industry following the 30% drop in the nation’s crude oil demand in the international market has anything to do with the pay cut, denied speculations that the termination of the contract of the big six companies which include ASTRA and GIL is based on Chevron’s move to kill unionism amongst its contract workers.
He insisted that some of the “new companies that won contract in a fresh bidding process has up to 150 staff, 100 above the required number stipulated by the 1999 constitution for any company’s workforce to form or join existing labour unions”.
Investigations by Fresh Angle reveal that while a reasonable number of Chevron contract staff have lost their jobs in the ongoing crisis, those who still have their jobs intact either by choice or merit have their salaries slashed by over 100%, a situation which an official of CNL claimed is based on agreement between the contractors and their workers.
While most of the staff with former ASTRA and GIL who use to earn between N500, 000.00 to N700, 000.00 monthly have their salaries allegedly slashed to about N200, 000.00 after the huge sums released as pay – off in their former contract was paid to them, Fresh Angle understands that inherited contract staff in the catering section have their salaries slashed from about N80, 000.00 monthly to between N25, 000.00 and N30, 000.00, with the new parent companies asking those who are not ready to accept the pay cuts to vacate their jobs.
While the unease in Chevron and its contracting companies is yet to openly blow out to most Deltans, particularly those living in Warri whose businesses almost solely depend on the oil company operation following SPDC departure from the area, Fresh Angle can report that laid off staff of some of these contracting firms have resorted to commercial driving, investment in real estate and petty trading.
Indications are rife that if urgent measures are not taken to check the trend, crime and other social vices will increase in Warri and environs.
Copyright: Fresh Angle International (www.freshangleng.com)
ISSN 2354 - 4104
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