Thousands of Bapco staff and their families are expected to protest outside the refinery on Saturday.

The demonstration is being spearheaded by the Trade Union of Bapco Employees, which has 52 demands in total.

The main ones are pay rises for Bapco staff and the announcement of bonuses for last year.

A decision was taken to stage the mass demonstration, which will start at 2pm, at a meeting of union leaders and employees yesterday.

The demonstration will take place at the refinery's north gate and union deputy chairman Mohammed Dulabi claimed 2,000 to 3,000 employees would be joined by their families and friends.

It follows previous low profile demonstrations, including one whch was held last Thursday outside the office of the National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) and Oil and Gas Affairs Minister Dr Abdulhussein Mirza.

Dulabi claimed the decision had been taken due to an alleged lack of co-operation from Bapco management.

'We have not even had acknowledgement from the authorities,' he said.

'After the protest on Saturday we will talk to employees about what other action we should take. I cannot make any further comments on that for now.'

The union claims staff are normally told what bonus they will receive by December each year, but no announcement has yet been made, even though it is now February.

Another demand by the union is for all workers aged 60 or over to be allowed to retire.

'This is not the Bapco way of dealing with protests and other issues,' added Dulabi.

'We should have a proper dialogue and resolve everything.'

However, Bapco human resources and administration acting general manager Mohammed Moradi said he was surprised by the action. He claimed the company was known for its positive relationship with its workforce.

He also argued that it was unrealistic to issue demands for immediate changes, saying any shift in policy must first be discussed.

However, he added it was not always possible to meet such demands because of other factors, such as budgets.-TradeArabia News Service