Support staff of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company , WRPC, have demanded payment of their severance packages, saying the company’s management has failed to address their grievances despite prolonged neglect of their welfare.

Addressing newsmen at the entrance of WRPC, Chairman of the Support Staff of WRPC, Dafe Ighomitedo, lamented that nothing had been done to address their grievances since 2015, despite repeated protests.

Ighomitedo said the workers could no longer endure the situation and called on the relevant authorities to intervene.

He said: “This is the fourth week we have been here protesting for us to get our severance package, with the old contract having expired on September 30. Unfortunately, it has been lies upon lies. We have been here since 2015, and this protest has been going on since 2015, but it always ends with deceit.

“The two palaces hosting this company (WRPC) went to Abuja, where they made promises to give the workers proper welfare. They laid off people and gave us peanuts. We who remained were still hopeful that someday, something good would happen, but no way. They told the masses that they are taking care of us, saying they are paying us N90,000 to N150,000. No pension, no medical, no transport. We don’t even have access to the plant clinic. When we are sick, it is so demeaning. We can no longer take it. We have been here since October 5, and till now, they have not responded.

“Someone is working against this government of President Bola Tinubu. The person is doing this to instigate violence against the President. We have been peaceful for so long. The community has been ruined for too long, and we can no longer take it.”

Also speaking, one of the support staff, Akivie Kingsley, said the workers had endured repeated unfulfilled promises regarding their welfare and severance packages.

He said: “There have been promises and failed promises. What these people are owing us is what I can’t even speak out. We are entitled to every welfare, but their promises have got to the point that we can no longer take it. If we are going on leave, there is no leave allowance. We have people who are already dead; we have two corpses in the mortuary as we speak. We have marriages that are crashing because of lack of finance, and children are out of school because we cannot pay their school fees. Yet, WRPC expects engineers like us, with vast experience, to keep working in this kind of environment with N90,000 salary. It won’t work. We are done with this slave contract.”

Another WRPC support staff member and laboratory technician, Benjamin Iwuno, lamented that his years of service had not been adequately recognised, adding that the workers lacked basic welfare benefits.

He said: “I have put in over 13 years in WRPC. All my years of service have been taken for granted. I am being paid peanuts, with no health benefits.

“How do you explain to the government that you have over 300 personnel working with you and none of them is pensionable? They can’t have access to basic healthcare. Some of my colleagues have died on duty, with no compensation.

“Can N90,000 take somebody with a family home? The management is telling us that we don’t mean anything to them. How is it possible that my boss will write my job as his appraisal and I get nothing in return? It is painful. I want my rightful benefit working in an oil and gas company.”

For Harriet Charles, who said she had worked at the refinery for 14 years, the situation had taken a heavy toll on her family.

She said: “I have been here for the past 14 years. I wasn’t like this. If you get to my house now, I don’t have a TV because N90,000 cannot get me a TV. My children are in school, but I cannot pay their school fees. I go begging sometimes because the money they are paying me is so meagre. People think I eat plenty of money because I work in a refinery, but where is the money?

“I have to buy soup from people selling soup to manage with my children. I have lost close friends working in the same department as me. I need my severance package so I can be able to take care of my children. My house rent is due. We need this money; we are dying.”