One hundred and forty retrenched workers of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation has described their severance pay as inhumane. The aggrieved workers have therefore petitioned the President, Mr J.A. Kufuor, to come to their aid since government’s goal is poverty alleviation.

The workers who called at the offices of the ‘Times’ in their numbers said they were contract staff at GNPC installations in Takoradi and Anyinase. Narrating their story, they said they were notified of their package by a letter signed by the Minister of Manpower Development and Employment.

The ‘Times’ gathered that senior staffs at the GNPC are entitled to three months salary for every completed year of service in addition to 10 per cent salary adjustment while the junior staff will take four months salary for every completed year in addition to 25 per cent salary adjustment.

But the contract workers, now redundant, have been offered one month salary for five years completed services, two months salary for between five and ten years completed services and three months salary for above ten years of service. In a petition to the President, the workers maintained that they worked longer hours yet took the same pay as the normal workers who are beneficiaries to the Provident Fund and loans granted to employees of GNPC.

According to them, these decisions were taken without consulting workers in the Tano Basin. “How are we going to pay our children’s school fees with this meagre amounts,” a worker lamented. They however, expressed the need for the President to intervene in the matter.

The petition also said, in the oilfield, the contract worker is ‘specialised hand’, working and toiling at the extended period of 12 hours daily and sometimes beyond. “We want the positive change to reflect in the pocket of the GNPC contract workers,” they intimated.