Tullow has denied defying government’s directive not to layoff any core technical Ghanaian staff in its layoff exercise.
[contextly_sidebar id=”kviLTaKvZmVVatcM6k9yRpjsL268ISgj”]The Ministry of Petroleum had on March, 18, 2015 directed Tullow Ghana Limited, not to lay-off any core technical staff after announcing plans to lay off some workers of the company as a result of the slump in crude prices on the international market.
Communications Consultant to the Energy Ministry, Edward Bawa in a statement said ” it is the position of the Ministry that Ghanaians playing core technical roles in the company should not be affected in the process”.
He added that Ghanaians working in departments such as Operations, Technical Services and Planning, Project and Engineering, Well engineering and Subsurface and Exploration should not be laid-off.
But according to the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) it is reliably informed that Tullow has laid-off more than 30 workers including core technical staff.
GTPCWU, which is the umbrella union of workers in the oil and gas sector, told Citi Business News, the highly skilled Ghanaian technical workers were operating on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah.
The Deputy General Secretary of the Union Francis Sallah told Citi Business News,” we are reliably informed that in spite of the ministers directive to Tullow not to lay off core technical staff , they have indeed gone ahead to lay off some core technical staff. We are not happy with it because the local content clearly is trying to protect these kind of people”.
But General Manager of Tullow Ghana Charles Darko says the reports are untrue.
He told Citi Business News ‘no Ghanaian staff earmarked to succeed expats have been affected by this and non of the technical staff has been affected by this……….we’ve come to that decision because it is the only alternative available to us’.
He adds that less than 70 people have so far been affected by the layoffs with over 30 of them Ghanaians.
‘There have been a mutual understanding between us and the employees in terms of how many people have been affected it’s about under 70 people , half of them expats , half of them Ghanaians’.
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By: Vivian Kai Lokko/citifmonline.com/Ghana
