00:00the employment situation for far too many in the oil and gas sector has been one of instability
00:07and disrespect according to minister in the ministry of energy ernesto kizar with decades
00:13working in the industry himself he says the practice of short-term contracts needs to change
00:19and spoke directly to state-run heritage and paria what has happened in heritage is that
00:26the workforce is a mixture of permanent workforce and contract and some of those contracts are
00:32extremely short-term contracts three months contracts six months and one year and some of
00:37the people that have been employed are skilled and highly qualified professionals i mean it's
00:43very very very disheartening it is our objective in the next year to change that and to have some
00:50of those professionals return to a more sustainable more stable type job he says more respect needs to
00:58be given to citizens especially skilled experienced workers i am calling on all um energy-based
01:06companies now particularly our national company heritage faria and so on as they will look and
01:11they are and the management persons look at that whole situation that they move to come more in
01:20line with what the law states laws of general and the labor laws and to look at the thing from making
01:26sure that our citizens uh return to some sort of stability speaking during a tour of the nesc drilling
01:34academy academy on wednesday minister kiza says their aim will also be to increase employment in the sector by 100
01:42percent by next year he said current figures show around 12 800 people employed in the oil and gas
01:51industry just 2.3 percent of the country's labor force we will do all that we have to do to return this country
02:01to the glory that we have had as being the pinnacle the the hub the the the essence in the caribbean for
02:10oil and gas learning oil and gas training and oil and gas influence that is our commitment he says to make that
02:18happen the ministry plans to activate an existing national apprenticeship policy i wish to encourage
02:27all the large companies shell atlantic lng exxon heritage and so on to seek good partnership and to
02:36seek out nese and to use nese and and its experience to again to create opportunities for our young people
02:46but more so to ensure that we have certified qualified professionals necessary for what is going to be
02:53a seriously expanded oil and gas industry cindy raguba tika singh tv6 news
