NGC workers accept $21.55 hourly wage

THE two-month long strike by workers on the National Gas Company’s (NGC) 56-inch cross-country pipeline project may soon come to an end after workers indicated their willingness to accept a minimum wage proposal offered by the project’s main contractor, API/Bechtel International. In an interview yesterday, workers’ representative Dereck Russell said compromise on the minimum wage proposal was reached during a meeting between the workers and API/Bechtel International at the Port-of-Spain office of Public Administration Minister Dr Lenny Saith, on Tuesday.

“We have agreed to accept the company’s base rate offer of $21.55 per hour for labourers,” Russel told Newsday. He said three major issues still to be resolved before work resumes on the country’s longest natural gas pipeline were: special rate for welders, increase in travelling allowances and payment of double time on Saturdays. “We are saying welders should be paid commensurate with the project they are working on,” Russel added. He said precedent had been set when the company paid higher wages to welders who worked on smaller gas pipelines. Russell said workers were also insisting on double-time pay for work on Saturdays, while the company initially countered with an offer of time-and-a-half.

He said the project’s main contractor, API/Bechtel International, promised to raise these issues with the NGC sometime yesterday. “The ball is now firmly in their court and we are willing to return to work once agreement is reached on these three issues.” Construction work on the 56-inch, 76-kilometre pipeline stopped on February 27, after workers downed tools demanding an increase in wages and other working conditions. Meanwhile, work at the Atlantic LNG Train IV construction site is said to be moving apace after workers returned to work two weeks ago.