Trainee workers first victims of refinery closure

SEVENTEEN workers from the petroleum refinery in Larnaca were made redundant yesterday, the first victims of the Cabinet decision to transform the grounds into a fuel import terminal.
The workers had been employed on April 2 in the Production Unit on a six-month training contract terminating at the end of October. But management informed them yesterday they would have to leave by the end of the month without compensation. They said the government decision not to upgrade the refinery meant that procedures had to be changed.
However, the 17 jilted employees maintained there was no mention of upgrading when they were initially hired. They told Larnaca Press that they would be seeking legal advice on the unexpected sacking.
The new government recently shelved plans to have the refinery upgraded to meet EU standards, arguing it would cost less to turn it into a fuel import terminal until a new energy center at Vasiliko was completed by 2008. Commerce Minister George Lillikas said the fuel import and storage terminal would continue to operate until 2010.
Existing staff at the refinery warned the minister on Thursday that they would take industrial action if he did not keep his promise to find them jobs when the site closed next year. Around 125 employees were to be made redundant in 2010. But since the decision was taken not to upgrade the site, the plans to close the refinery have been brought forward by six years to 2004.

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