On February 12, Chevron staff in Dhaka and at Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulvibazar gas fields wore black badges in a peaceful protest to press home their demands.
At issue are change of control compensation, end benefits and 5% of the Workers Profit Participation Fund (WPPF), which the Chevron Bangladesh Employee Union (CBEU) says is due to its members.
The CBEU has taken the WPPF profit sharing issue to the High Court. The union was registered on January 10 to represent Chevron Bangladesh’s employees.
A Chevron official, asking not to be named, said work continued as usual despite the protest.
Chevron Bangladesh’s external communications manager Shaikh Jahidur Rahman declined to comment about the specific issues raised by his company’s workers’ union, but said: “Chevron Bangladesh is committed to maintaining a constructive dialogue with our employees.”
The union said this was the first of a series of peaceful protests it has planned.
Chevron’s Bangladesh gas field assets – reportedly valued at around $2 billion - are up for sale. A Reuters report identified Zhenhua Oli, a subsidiary of China’s defence industry conglomerate Norinco, as a potential buyer of the oil giant’s Bangladesh assets.
Chevron announced in 2016 that it would exit the Bangladesh market and sell off its operations.
The CBEU claimed that Chevron management was resorting to delaying tactics that puts the financial security of several hundred of its employees and thousands of their dependants at risk.
Union members told the Dhaka Tribune that they had ensured production and fulfilled their respective duties even while negotiations were being held.
After Chevron’s decision to wrap up its business in Bangladesh was reported in the media, employees initiated a dialogue with the company in the form of a Joint Management and Employee Engagement Forum (JMEEF) in the final quarter of 2016.
Four JMEEF meetings have been held as of January 2017, but outstanding issues raised by employees and taken up by the CBEU have not yet been resolved.
Friday, March 28, 2025
