Napet workers: Keep Finance Minister, CPO out of salary negotiations

The Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) is demanding that the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) and the Finance Minister step aside, and allow the union to engage in fair negotiations with Napet Investment Ltd, a subsidiary of National Petroleum Marketing Co Ltd (NP).

Speaking to members of the media at a protest outside the CPO’s office on Alexandria Street, St Clair on March 11, OWTU first vice president Sati Gajadhar Inniss said the minister and CPO had been “interfering” in the negotiations since 2018, and hampering the process to the detriment of the workers.

Inniss said since the union submitted its proposals to the company, Napet said it was waiting for a remit from the CPO, which turned out to be two per cent over six years. But she said Napet’s management indicated it could settle negotiations at a higher percentage wage increase than was suggested by the CPO.

She stressed the OWTU’s recognition certificate was between Napet and the union, not with the government.

“We are calling on the CPO and the Minister of Finance to step aside from the process and allow parties to meet, whether it's at the court or bilaterally, in order for us to have fair negotiations.

“It’s because of the interference of the these two institutions that is actually causing the process to stall, in the union's opinion.”

She said there had been 13-16 negotiations, and when the union met with the company to have discussions in May 2024, Napet said they would take the union’s counterproposal to the CPO.

She added that some workers’ salaries were close to minimum wage. They continued to struggle yet they also continued to work, producing cooking gas in conditions that left “a lot to be desired.”

Also, she said the company told the union it would pay workers a productivity bonus, but the negotiations were out of its hands.

“If the employer, based on their financial situation, has the ability to pay, no minister or no committee should say to a company that you should settle for X or Y. It should be on the ability of the employer to pay its workers who work for them and produce for them. It is based on that, that the workers are supposed to receive the appropriate remuneration.”