(Ecofin Agency) - Workers at company Petroci have increased their strike for another 72 hours as they look to bring in workers from other companies in the sector to join the protest.

“Next week we will intensify the strike and see if other employees from other companies in the sector join the Petroci employees in this strike,” Geremie N'Guessan Wondje, secretary general of the SYNTEPCI union said.

Petroci plans to pay 10 sacked managers six months’ salary while 40 others staffs that were dismissed will get eight months’ salary although a member of the company's management revealed that the union was asking for 20 months.

“That's not possible. We don't have all that money,” the official commented.

Fifty of Petroci's 600 workers were sacked last month and the company is still planning to dismiss an additional 150 as a result of an audit’s advice that the company reduce costs and staff amid falling oil prices.

According to Reuters, SYNTEPCI stands for workers from 16 companies. They include Petroci, state-owned Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR), which has a refinery with a capacity of 65,000 bpd, logistics firms as well as fuel retailers such as Total.

Anita Fatunji