Oil Workers Strike At Sea

Flashback! MODEC workers in a previous demonstration.

Ghanaian workers of MODEC who operate on FPSO Kwame Nkrumah at the Jubilee Oilfield in the Western Region have expressed dissatisfaction with the discrepancy between their salaries and benefits and that of expatriates.

MODEC Ghana Limited is an offshore facilities development and construction company that designed and constructed the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah for the Jubilee partners.

It is currently operating and maintaining the FPSO for the Jubilee Partners after they purchased it in 2011.

It also recruits locals to work on the FPSO.
The Ghanaian workers on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, numbering about 40, yesterday began a strike action at sea to protest against unfair salaries and other poor working conditions.

A source on the vessel told BUSINES GUIDE that the workers were clad in red and that the action had brought oil production on the FPSO to a standstill.

BUSINESS GUIDE also learnt the Jubilee partners are losing millions of dollars in oil revenue as a result of the strike while the country is also losing some oil revenue.

The workers said that they are paid between GH¢2,500 and GH¢3,000 per month while their expatriate workers take an average of about $5,000 to $10,000 even though the Ghanaians and expatriates do the same job on the FPSO.

According to sources, they chanted songs on the FPSO while the expatriate workers looked on.

The aggrieved workers indicated that they would not resume work until the relevant authorities address their grievances.

The workers revealed that Ghanaian workers on some rigs at sea have on several occasions complained to the expatriates about the unfair salaries since offshore drilling started in Ghana but all their pleas had fallen on deaf ears.

'We have complained several times to our expatriate bosses at sea but nothing has been done about it so we are now at our wits end and this action is just the beginning of more of such protests,' one of the workers said.

Sources within the industry informed us that MODEC received huge amounts of money in dollars as basic salaries on behalf of Ghanaian workers, but pay us paltry salaries in cedis, they alleged.

Eric Ofori, the Secretary of the local union, confirmed the story to journalists in Takoradi and stated the workers would continue to press home their demands for better conditions of service.

 
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi