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13 July, 2009
An oil workers’ trade union, affiliated to Peruvian FENUPETROL, showed its indignation last month at violations of health and safety conditions for workers at ECOPETROL-Knoc, a Colombian/Korean joint venture operating in Peru. The company is guilty of failing to enforce safety standards at its Peruvian subsidiaries called Petro-Tech Peruana SA.
The June National Assembly of FENUPETROL analysed the poor record of safety in the industry in Peru. Petro-Tech Peruana owns numerous petroleum companies, including Diving Del Peru Sac. The union there submitted numerous complaints over failed safety and health protections for members by Jaime Velasco, director of Human Relations, by Luis Navarro Vilela, director of Industrial Relations, and by plant manager Finlay Macdonald.
Twenty-two workers at the company were suspended on 18 April 2009 for refusing to work in unsafe conditions.
The company failed to even respond to communiqués by the union to address safety concerns, which include placing inexperienced supervisors in charge of dangerous operations. That has led to two serious accidents in the days preceding the union’s National Assembly. In one, a worker lost his air supply while cleaning a suction filter under water at an offshore oil rig.
The dangerous, illegal, and lax attitude of ECOPETROL towards workers’ safety received international condemnation, with the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) speaking out last month. In a letter to ECOPETROL Vice President Lic Navarrete, following an accident which hospitalized a worker with first and second degree burns, LO called for an immediate change in the safety culture.
Other fatal examples by affiliates of ECOPETROL have seen divers die after being trapped under water without supervisors even noticing.
Petro-tech Peruana has also come under heavy criticism for its continued refusal to adopt a social development programme, a plan that would install gas connections to homes. Such a plan would create jobs. The company has made pledges on social responsibility, but has repeatedly refused to enter into dialogue with inhabitants in Talara Province.
The ICEM demands swift improvement to the health and safety policies and practices of ECOPETROL and its subsidiaries. The ICEM will work together with new Colombian oil workers’ affiliate, USO, to improve health and safety within the company.