Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
The situation at Port Harcourt based oil and gas company, Ciscon Nigeria Limited this morning deteriorated further as the Managing director of the company. Mr. Shawley Coker, in a shocking move ordered that 66 staff who are union members be sacked without being paid the overdue 3months salary owed them.
Nigerianflightdeck.com also learnt that four of the Ciscon workers received their termination letter while on site on an oil rig, which according to experts in the oil and gas field is a high risk area where nothing should go wrong.
Last week workers of the company cried out over their unpaid salaries amounting three months after they demanded to know when exactly they would be paid having gotten information that monies had been paid into the company account.
However, according to insider information, in a bold move aimed at intimidating the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) branch of Ciscon Nigeria Limited, Mr. Coker terminated the appointment of the 66 workers based on the advice of his HR Manager Chioma Ken-Oshionya without being paid the overdue 3months salary owed them.
The letters signed by the HR Manager were sent via email and DHL to staff members who were not allowed into the office. Four (4) of the sacked staff received their termination letters via email from the HR Manager while working on the rig floor.
The technical staff members while working for Ciscon on a Chevron rig, received a mail on their phones and were shocked to see a termination letter that was backdated, extremely crude and lacked even basic courtesy.
The sacked technical staff expected another crew would be sent in immediately to take over from but as the hours dragged on, it became apparent that management expected them to continue working even with termination letters in their pockets.
The terminated staff showed their letter to the Chevron representative on site, who was shocked to learn termination letters had been sent by mail to staff members in such a high-risk environment.
Chevron sent for the Ciscon GM of that unit, Dr. Joe Ejedawe, to explain the rationale behind sacking staff on the rig but he was unable to give any explanation.
Recall last week that Managing Director of the Port Harcourt based oil and gas company Ciscon Nigeria Limited, Shawiey Coker hired armed mobile policemen to harass and intimidate staff of the company for demanding payment of their three months salaries.
The staff of Ciscon had demanded for their three months salary upon the discovery that some money had been paid into the company’s foreign account for services rendered. The unpaid staff who did these jobs requested that the MD inform them on when he would pay as they are aware the money is available.
According to information gathered the Human Resource Manager, Chioma Ken Oshionya and the Deputy General Manager, Martins Akhimien ; the MD invited the members of the anti-riot squad to intimidate the staff for their audacity to ask for their salaries even after 3 months of not being paid. Anti-Riot mobile police men over 15 stormed into the compound with weapons and caused a stir among staff.
Also a few weeks ago, the management locked out the staff in attempt to intimidate them but the staff instead picketed the company.
