NOT A BLACK CENT

NOT one black cent for 600 temporary Petrotrin workers, some of whom have worked with the state-owned oil company for as long as 16 years. This is the brutal reality facing the workers when the company ceases operations on Friday.

Approximately 1,100 other temporary workers will benefit from the company’s $2.6 billion severance package, but these workers have only been with the company for the past five years or less.

Petrotrin officials confirmed yesterday that its formula, of 150 days over five years, was used to determine who out of the 1,700 pool of temps will make the cut for severance pay and who will not. Acknowledging it appears unfair, a company official said, “We just don’t have the money for a better formula.”

According to the formula, any temporary worker who chalked up 750 hours within the last five years will collect severance pay. It therefore excludes 600 temporary workers who would have been on the company’s payroll for between eight and 16 years.

The $2.6 billion payout covers these 1,100 temporary workers and the company’s 3,000 permanent staff.

For temporary worker Vidianand Maharaj, 58, the news that he would be going home with nothing after being with Petrotrin for 16 years, was too bitter a pill to swallow. He suffered a stroke last week at his home in south Oropouche.

Maharaj, who is still in hospital, worked an average of seven months a year for the past 16 years. A relative, who requested anonymity, said, “Petrotrin tell him he eh hah nothing to get. He grieving and worrying since and he dropped down last week. “

The flames from Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre’s refinery, which has become something of a landmark, especially at nights, will be put out at midnight on Friday as the refinery operation comes to an end. Two new companies will manage exploration and marketing.

NOTHING TO SHOW

Another temp, Gabriella Martin, 42, said she had been a Clerk II for the past 16 years, working an average of six months a year.

“I am going home with nothing to show for my service. Every time I called Petrotrin, I am told the same thing: I have nothing to get.

“It’s going to be Christmas soon, and I cannot describe to you the hurt I am feeling,” Martin said.

Amber Asson, 27, said she worked for eight years in Petrotrin’s accounts department, for an average of seven months a year.

“It was my only job. My salary was just under $1,900 weekly. They moved me around as an accounts clerks in different departments.

“They told me the other day that when Petrotrin closes, I will have nothing to get.”

Ria Mohammed, another temp, told Newsday: “For the past six years I worked on call for Petrotrin. I worked for eight months each year as an administrative clerk.”

The 42-year-old added, “Not even a letter of thanks. I have nothing to get.

“My husband died in an accident and I’m a mother of three children.”

Keisha David, 32, worked as a temporary clerk for seven years and told Newsday yesterday she had functioned as an acting technical assistant at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery. “I worked for seven years, average seven months each year.

“I going home with nothing. They say we are not included in the severance package.”

A Petrotrin official reiterated to Newsday that the company’s “150 days for the last five years” formula captured 1,000 temporary employees, leaving 600 out in the cold.

“We just could not find the money to work out a different formula to pay all the non-permanent staff,” the official said.

This flies in the face of repeated assurances by the government that every Petrotrin worker will be taken care of as the company ceases operations.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Energy Minister Franklin Khan could not be reached for comment yesterday, as calls to their cellphones went unanswered.