Local workers on FPSO Kwame Nkrumah on strike
Indigenous workers of MODEC Ghana Limited, the company that operates and manages the country’s oil production platform, the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, have began a sit-down strike to press home their demand for better conditions of service.
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The action has consequently disrupted oil production at the Jubilee Field.
According to the 40 technical workers, they work in the same environment as their expatriate colleagues who have far better working conditions.
The Ghanaian workers provide services such as maintenance, operations, as well as marine and utilities, which are essential to the production process.
Local union
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Secretary of the local Oil and Gas Workers Union, Mr Eric Ofori, said their working conditions were not the best and that there was the need for massive improvement.
“We work in the same environment with foreign workers, but we are not entitled to the same conditions of service, although we are exposed to the same risk in the line of duty,”.
“I can tell you that we are not violent. We are on a sit-down strike and we will not be forced from the platform to the shore,” he said.
Salary
He explained that the indigenous workers received salaries of between GH¢2,500 and GH¢3,000 a month, while their expatriate counterparts took home an average of between $5,000 and $10,000, a difference of about 800 per cent.
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“Foreigners who are not even up to our standards take an average of between $5,000 and $10,000 a month,” he claimed.
However, a source at the lead operator at the Jubilee Field, Tullow Ghana, indicated that the strike did not have an impact on production, as they had received assurances from the managers of the FPSO that work was progressing steadily and production was still above the 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) target.
It said the strike would also not affect the current tie-in of the pipeline to ship associated gas to the gas processing plant at Atuabo.