Shell Petroleum Development Company may this week fire 3,000 of its employees in Nigeria as it battles to survive in the wake of militant attacks on its flow stations.
The massive sack, it was learnt, is being contemplated as a result of Shell�s dwindling fortunes largely because of the fall in its oil production quota.
Apart from the permanent staff that are likely to get their sack letters this week, others who are classified as casual workers may also be asked to go.
Before the era of militancy in the Niger Delta, Shell was producing up to a million barrels of crude oil per day. But the situation has since changed for the worst.
It was learnt on Monday that Shell�s production now hovers round 400,000 barrels per day.
Although the company has argued that the sack option was being considered because of what it called the One Shell Initiative. Daily Independent learnt that most workers on levels 1 to 3 have already been listed for sack while the lists of those in the categories of superintendents up to artisans are being compiled.
The insinuation has been that the company was embarking on the sack exercise to enable it increase the quota of its expatriate staff.
It was this argument that prompted a meeting between the company and some officials of the Federal Government last Friday. It was not clear whether the government�s intervention may affect the release of the final list of the affected employees this week.
But an employee of the company in Port Harcourt said on Monday that most of the workers were already gripped by the sack fever.
The company�s spokesman, Precious Okolobo, confirmed the development in a telephone interview. He, however, said about 2,000 employees may be affected.
Okolobo also said contract workers would be affected during the exercise. “The One Shell project is about Shell aiming to enhance efficiency and accountability and reducing costs by taking advantage of synergies and eliminating duplication by reorganising the core business functions and the provision of support services among Shell companies in Nigeria,” the spokesman added.
Source: the Independant