Contract  workers in Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Limited, last weekend, staged a peaceful protest at the company demanding their regularisation as full staff of the company. Chairman  of the contract workers, Mr. Gift Ekpone, who  addressed  journalists during the protest  said, the six  months probation given as a condition for the  full engagement of the contract workers has since elapsed. He  said the contract workers have  worked for over two years without  receiving  any attention or consideration from the management.
Ekpone disclosed that all the appeals of the contract workers to management to get their appointment regularized  fell on deaf ears.
Rather, he said, the management of the company prefers to  exploit the contract workers  without any prospect of getting them absorbed into the mainstream work force.
“We are  being exploited like bulls in the plant,  we have  worked as contract staff for  over two years,  contrary to the six months  probation they gave us as a condition  for our regularization. Our  future is uncertain, as management has remained adamant to our demands”, he stated.
He called on  the Rivers State Government  and other  labour stakeholders to intervene   on their  behalf and save them from what he referred to as  “slave labour”.
Ekpone also frowned at a situation  where Indian  workers are given  preferential treatment through juicy  conditions of service,  while Nigerians are made to wallow  under dehumanising  policies.
He said that, as contract workers, what they  receive as allowances could  barely take care of their cost of transportation.

Taneh Beemene