Activities at the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) in Warri, Delta State have been grounded following an ongoing protest by hundreds of casual workers against the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).
The protest, which is ongoing on the premises of the WRPC, started in the early hours of Thursday.
The protesters, some of whom have worked for 28 years, are demanding “conversion from casual to permanent staff, increase in salary, payment of all outstanding allowances, better working conditions and welfare”.
Some are requesting payoffs since the NNPC management has “refused” to yield to their demand for regularisation over the years.
Calling on the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari to urgently address the matter, the casual staff, numbering 336, warned that there will be no resumption of work until their demands were met.
They accused the NNPC management of consistently lying and failing to honour promises made over the issue that has lingered for many years.
Bearing leaves and placards with inscriptions such as “No conversion, no quick fix,” “15, 25, 27 years of slavery must stop,” “NNPC stop technical lies,” “WRPC, KRPC, PRPC must work,” “Increase our salary,” among others, they chanted solidarity songs.
One of them said: “The workers want to leave the job and they want the management to pay them off since the management don’t need their services.
“On the ground that the management still want their services and want to keep them, the workers are demanding for their conversion from causal staff to the permanent staff of the organisation”.
It will be noted the same worker in 2019 and 2021 protested over the same issues.
It was gathered that WRPC host communities’ leaders, who tried to intervene in the past, are displeased with the disposition of the NNPC management on the matter.
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