The notion that every Petrotrin employee will go home with hundreds of thousands of dollars is a fallacy, according to several workers who have already collected their termination letters.
Employees said yesterday that their separation payments cannot last any significant time, as they have outstanding loan and mortgage payments leading up to their retirement.
Employees who spoke yesterday asked not to be identified, since they hope to be employed in the replacement company - Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd - which began advertising job vacancies on Sunday.
The T&T Guardian reported that at least two senior managers were set to collect over $4 million as part of their severance packages, but a company official said management staff was a small group compared to the entire workforce. Although Finance Minister Colm Imbert said $2.6 billion will be spent on attractive termination packages for permanent, temporary and casual employees, the official said only a few will collect millions.
A supervisor in Petrotrin’s Exploration and Production operation said he collected his termination letter over the weekend and realised the payments were calculated based on the collective agreement with the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU).
“The Prime Minister spoke of enhanced separation packages for the workers but there is nothing enhanced about this. I’ve worked for 26 years and there is nothing enhanced about what they are giving. I am married and paying a mortgage. To be honest, this can cover my loans but how will I live month to month?"
A 54-year-old supervisor at the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery said he missed out on early retirement, which was offered to employees between 55 and 60. The retrenchment is even heavier on his family, as he and his wife both work at Petrotrin and have a child enrolled in a university, with another expected to begin next year.
The supervisor, who collected his letter on the second day of the terminations, said his separation package means he will have to cut back on certain bills.
While he does not foresee his area of expertise being required in the new company, he said he will reapply if a position becomes available. And while he and other members of his department have begun looking for jobs on the market, he said it’s a competition now in which he is fighting against his younger colleagues.
According to Petrotrin documents, termination payments were calculated using the Memorandum of Agreement for the National Petroleum Staff Association for the period January 2009 to January 2012. An employee will collect one month's salary for every year of service for the first five years, 1.25 month's salary if they worked for an additional 14 years and 1.5 month's salary for every year of service thereafter. The employees are also expected to collect retroactive payments for the period 2012 to 2015.
Petrotrin will pay employees the balance of their savings plans, Vacation Travel Grant and outstanding annual leave. Pension entitlement will be paid in accordance with the Petrotrin Employee Pension Plan. The medical plan will cease on November 30 and from December 1, Petrotrin will offer former employees membership in a new medical plan through an approved insurance carrier. The company will pay the full cost of the initial insurance premiums until 2020, following which the workers will be required to secure their own coverage. Those living in the bungalows on the refinery compound were given up to February 28, 2019, to leave.
Both supervisors said morale was now low in their departments. Despite their termination letters, workers are expected to work up to November 30, when Petrotrin will be taken off line.
“It was pretty surreal when we got our letters. Over the last few weeks people have been walking around like zombies because we don't know what the future holds. It is the uncertainty that is affecting us and everyone is in a sombre mood,” the E&P supervisor said.
The refinery supervisor said workers are feeling hurt by the way the retrenchment was handled.
“The employees did not like the way they were treated by the company and the government. Petrotrin employees are people too and at one time, were carrying the country economically and only the in the last three years Government saw trouble. We feel that we were made to fall on the sword and bare the brunt of the restructuring.”
Attempts to contact Petrotrin's executive director Reynold Ajodhasingh, who heads the Interim Executive Transition Team, for an update on the termination process were unsuccessful yesterday.
Some employees are waiting for Thursday's court hearing between the OWTU and Petrotrin before accepting their letters. Employees were informed that if they did not collect their letters, it would be mailed to them.