Adewale Sanyaolu
The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) Limited, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has fired 184 ad-hoc workers.
A letter conveying the termination for some of the 178 ad-hoc workers from Sahabent Nigeria Limited, a copy obtained by Daily Sun, dated March 27, 2020, explained that the NNPC management decision to rehabilitate the nation’s refineries between 2020 and 2023, informed their disengagement.
This was even as the NNPC denied having any contract with the affected support workers, as they were not at any time engaged by the Corporation. The disengaged ad-workers include plant operators, laboratory technicians, maintenance crew and operational drivers.
The letter added that some of the identified units of KRPC will be shut down during the rehabilitation exercise. ‘‘In view of the above, your services as KPRC support staff will no longer be required as from April 1, 2020,’’ the letter added.
But a source affected in the disengagement exercise said they have been unfairly treated as most of them have put in a minimum of 10 years while others have worked for over 15 years.
The source who preferred not to be named for fear of victimisation said he was engaged in 2010, shortly after his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with the pledge that their appointment would be regularised in due course.
He explained that their engagement at that time being on an ad-hoc basis was without a letter of appointment or condition of service.
He noted that after much pressure, some companies were brought in as their new employers to take over the responsibility of paying their salaries. He listed the companies to include; Sahabent Nigeria Limited, Azzahabi Nigeria Limited, Cartel Multi Services Limited, Kamlink Nigeria Limited.
Others are; Samgus Nigeria Limited, Sarauniya Global Links and Terragona Doma Global Venture Limited. The source lamented that plans to get their appointment regularised through the recently completed recruitment exercise under ‘Experienced Hires’ was scuttled as most of them were over the prescribed age having already put in over 10-15 years as casuals.
He added that a separate in-house interview was organised for some of the support staff who were outstanding in the discharge of their duty in a bid to regularise their appointments. This, he added, also met brickwall as the entire process was subsequently cancelled.
The source called on the Federal Government to look into the plight of the disengaged workers and regularise their appointments having served the refinery for between 10 to 15 years without any form of terminal benefit.
But the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Dr. Kennie Obateru, in a telephone interview with Daily Sun, explained that the disengaged workers were brought in by NNPC contractors to carry out some certain role within a period of time.
‘‘What usually happens is that from time to time, we do have contracts to execute through our contractors and when we finish executing the contract, they leave. Some contractors have been with us for a very long time and same for some of their hires. So for the fact that a particular contractor keeps bringing the same set of workers for years does not make them our liability.
Obateru disclosed that every Nigerian was given a level playing field during the last recruitment exercise and that, only the best in every State of the federation was considered because it was strictly done on the basis of merit.
‘‘So if some of the support workers had participated in the exercise, and due to one reason or the other, they could not merit being absorbed, that is not the fault of the corporation,’’ he said.