Tension Mounts As Warri Refinery Allegedly Plans To Lockout ‘Support Workers’

Palpable tension is mounting in Warri Refinery and Petrolchemical Company in Ekpan, Delta state as its host communities raised the alarm over alleged plans to shutout some casual workers of the company categories as ‘support staff’

BIGPEN ONLINE gathered that the workers who are members of the host communities of Ekpan, Ubeji and others have been agitating over failure of the management of the petrochemical company to regularise their employment and convert them to permanent staff of the establishment.

A statement circulated to newsmen on Sunday in Warri signed by Eyewu Omeyen, Okpako Victor and Richmond Gogo say the company want to force the workers to drop their agitations and adopt proposed management decision of continuous “modernized slavery.”

The host communities alleged that management planned to shutout the workers on Monday April 8, when they turn up for work in a bid to force them to drop their agitations.

“WRPC is making the plans due to the demand by the Warri Support Staff of the Company who have spent years on the plant to be converted to “Permanent Staff.”

They alleged that the company would be deploying soldiers to prevent the workers from entering the premises tomorrow adding that should the plans snowball into a chaotic situation, the management should be held responsible for breakdown of law and order.

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“We the support staff remains resolute in our decision of unconditional conversion from WRPC/NNPC management that felt it is wise to keep us in perpetual slavery.”

All efforts to reach the Management of the Warri Petrochemical Company, WRPC for comments on this report proved abortive but a top management staff doubted the purported plans to shutout the said workers.