TOFCO
workers accept 15%
Newsday
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
06 04 07
TRINIDAD
Offshore and Fabricators Company Limited’s
(TOFCO) employees have ended their two-week placard
protest after they decided to accept the management’s
offer of a 15 per cent wage increase. The 200 workers
will return to work on Monday.
The
workers, who have been staging daily protests
outside of TOFCO’s gates at the La Brea Industrial
Estate, had also demanded fringe benefits and improved
working conditions.
However, after a two-hour meeting, the workers
agreed to a 15 percent increase in wages over a
three-year period. Six percent would be given this
year, five percent next year and four percent in
2009.
The workers are engaged in the construction of
oil and gas platforms for both onshore and offshore
operations.
The workers are not represented by a trade union,
but TOFCO has a workers committee to negotiate
on their behalf.
Committee
leader Desmond Reyes said yesterday that for
the first time in TOFCO’s history,
a fringe benefit of $2 per hour would be given
to workers. But the improvement of working conditions,
he said, was yet to be finalised.
The workers would be paid fringe benefits for
work done since January.
Newsday
Friday,
June 1 2007
Copyright
©2007 Newsday. All Rights Reserved.
