KRPC is a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The letter conveying the disengagement of the workers from Sahabent Nigeria Limited was hinged on NNPC’s decision to rehabilitate the nation’s refineries between 2020 and 2023.
While saying that the development came to them as a shock at a time the country was battling with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the affected workers added that it was outright disobedient to the Federal Government’s directive against lay-offs amid the lockdown.
Speaking with newsmen in Kaduna, Chairman of Support Staff, KRPC NUPENG, Abdulfatai Mohammed, said the affected workers had spent between 10 to 15 years of their productive lives giving their best to the company.
“Just as at the time the support staff members were expecting their jobs to be regularized, having served the Corporation for 10 to 15 years in the production, laboratory and maintenance departments of the refinery with meagre salaries, the disengagement came.
“These are Nigerians who have worked without hazard and medical allowances and under severe and inhumane conditions over the years. The disengagement came after they were deprived of participating in the just-concluded recruitment exercise by the cooperation, as the criteria used were not favourable to most of them. To pave way for the new recruits, the exit door was shown to the vast experienced staff,” he said.
The affected workers called on the leadership of NLC and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to come to their aid “at this time the whole world is ravaged by COVID-19, to ensure that our source of livelihood is protected by the virtue of being financial members of the NUPENG and in the spirit of injury to one is injury to all.”
Mohammed added: “Going by the directive of the president that no worker should lose his or her job at this time of coronavirus pandemic, we were shocked that this important directive was ignored by the company.
“We are also calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources to use their good offices to override the action of NNPC.”
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