They claim they were tricked into accepting pay-offs
Thousands of laid-off workers from Shengli oilfield have maintained a peaceful sit-in outside the company's office building in Dongying, Shandong province , since the end of November, in a bid to convince the employer to rehire them.
The petitioners claim company officials persuaded them to accept a redundancy offer five years ago by saying the company was headed for financial difficulty, sources said.
The oilfield had about 200,000 employees before it laid off one-tenth of its workforce in 2000 to streamline the company for a stock market listing.
After the restructuring, it split into two companies, with the best assets going to the Sinopec Shengli Oil Field Dynamic Group which was listed that year and the rest to another company called the Shengli Oil Administration Bureau. Each employee has received 4,100 yuan from the company each year since then for giving up their jobs.
In a letter posted on an oil industry website chat room, the former workers said their previous decision to accept the offer was based on company information that led them to believe 'it would go bankrupt soon'.
