$60,000 payout to Petrotrin workers
PORT SPAIN
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Petroleumworldtt.com
12 31 08
Some 4,000 employees of State-owned energy company Petrotrin will receive a variable payment of $60,000 each next month, as part of an agreement between the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) and the company.
The payout is being made in the face of a worldwide economic meltdown and a drastic reduction in the price of crude oil.
All employees, from the level of janitor to executive chairman, will be entitled to the payment, which will be subject to income tax, it was learned.
Yesterday Arnold Corneal, manager-communications at Petrotrin, said he was not in a position to give figures but, "as far as I know, the company is committed legally to make all variable payments in accordance with existing agreements".
He said: "Contracted payments will be made even as the company's financial position is in a precarious situation, so we will have to leave all our options open."
Corneal added: "As has been done in previous years, payments will be based on the profits of the company during the last fiscal year."
Petrotrin's financial year ends in September.
Last year, payments to employees based on revenues amounting to $25.788 billion yielded a profit of $1.316 billion, and an average of $30,000 to each employee was paid.
An official of the OWTU said the payments had nothing to do with the economic situation in the country. "Once you have an agreement, you have to follow it."
But even as the company will honour its legal arrangement with employees, several items of expenditure will be reduced. High on the list is the company's annual subsidy to Christmas dinners organised by employees.
But the multi-million-dollar refinery upgrade at Pointe-a-Pierre will continue. In his recent address to the nation, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said the upgrade will not be affected by the cut in expenditure.
Since 2006, the company has embarked on a series of capital projects to update the refinery.
Story by Louis B Homer South Bureau
from Trinidad & Tobago Express
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Thursday, December 11th 2008
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