About 49 ex-servicemen, who worked offshore for Total E&P Nigeria Limited, have held a peaceful protest in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, following their retrenchment by the company.

The placard-bearing legionnaires who gathered at the main gate of the company’s headquarters in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, also said their salaries were not increased throughout the period they worked for the oil firm.

One of the sacked workers, Emuze Emmanuel, wondered why 49 of them were forcefully sent home after serving the company for many years.

Emmanuel said: “We want to know why 49 of us were forcefully sent away from Total after long years of service. Out of the 49 persons, one person died and one other person was called back to resume work. For 13 years of service, there was no increment of salaries. We were denied many benefits including the Covid-19 palliatives that other contract workers of the company benefited from.”

Emmanuel said they decided to embark on the protest after making many failed efforts to discuss their ordeals with the security management of the firm.

He said the protest was intended to draw the attention of the firm’s legal unit and human resources department to their plight.

He said: “We are not making troubles. We want dialogue, a roundtable discussion. We have served in the rain during the floods in the different wells we were posted to for a good number of years and we wonder why no official letter was issued to confirm our retrenchment.”

Another sacked worker, Irokah Kingsley, said they waited in vain to get feedback from the company.

He said: “We reached out to the head of legionnaires but there was no response instead we were told that we would be confronted by the military if we came to the gate. Our demand is to meet with the human resource, legal departments and the head of security on a roundtable.”

When contacted, Total Manager, Corporate and Project Communications, Senan Murray, promised to respond to the issues.

(The Nation)

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