HOUSTON (Reuters) – Hourly workers at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Convent, Louisiana, refinery, scheduled for everlasting closure as early as subsequent week, obtained particulars this week of the severance package deal negotiated by their union and Shell, three folks accustomed to the settlement stated on Friday.
Shell stated on Nov. 5 it was closing the refinery after failing to discover a purchaser for the plant, which has been hit onerous by crushed demand within the COVID-19 pandemic. A spokesman didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the settlement.
Shell put the Convent refinery up on the market in July, and was fast to drag the set off on the closure, the sources stated. Shell’s Anacortes, Washington, refinery and Saraland, Alabama, chemical plant, are nonetheless working regardless that each have been on the market of an extended time frame, the sources stated.
The Anacortes refinery has been in the marketplace since a minimum of January.
The United Steelworkers union (USW) and Shell agreed that workers will probably be paid three weeks for yearly of service with a minimal of 12 weeks and a most of 78 weeks, the sources stated. That gives an additional week of pay per yr of service than different refiners which closed vegetation this yr supplied, two of the sources stated.
About 350 staff are represented by the Steelworkers and may obtain the package deal, they stated.
The package deal for unionized staff is much like what Shell salaried workers are being supplied, they stated. The variety of salaried and hourly workers is about equal, the sources stated. One other 400 contractors work on the Convent refinery.
The dismissed hourly staff can apply for jobs at Shell’s Norco, Louisiana, refinery and Geismar, Louisiana, chemical plant. Some staff will stay to wash up the refinery and a few may work on the website into the third quarter of subsequent yr, the sources stated.
Shell plans to proceed searching for a purchaser for the refinery.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Enhancing by Tom Brown)
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