Workers gathered outside Motor Oil facilities in Greece on Wednesday as part of a 24-hour strike following an explosion that killed two employees during maintenance operations at the company’s refinery.
A large number of workers participated in the demonstration, displaying banners outside the facilities and calling for an investigation into the circumstances of the accident.
The Panhellenic Energy Federation (POE), which called the strike, demanded accountability for the deaths and stronger enforcement of workplace health and safety regulations, particularly during maintenance work at high-risk industrial installations.
The explosion resulted in the deaths of two workers, prompting renewed concerns among labor representatives about safety procedures at refineries and the working conditions of employees hired through subcontractors.
Union Calls for Accountability
In a statement, the federation said workplace fatalities should not be regarded as an unavoidable consequence of industrial activity.
“We cannot and must not treat such incidents as an inevitable price of work,” the federation said.
“The loss of a worker at high-risk facilities such as refineries brings back, in the harshest possible way, the issue of the effective implementation of health and safety measures, particularly during maintenance operations and when these are carried out by employees of contracting companies.”
The federation emphasized that safety standards must apply equally to directly employed personnel and workers hired through outside contractors.
“Employees of contracting companies are our equal colleagues.
Their lives have the same value, and they are entitled to the same high level of protection, training, supervision and safe working conditions,” the statement said.
The union also warned against differences in workplace protection based on employment arrangements.
“There cannot be two categories of workers when it comes to safety, nor can the protection of human life be considered secondary to production requirements,” it added.
Safety Measures Under Scrutiny
The federation has called for responsibility to be established and for measures to prevent similar incidents, focusing particularly on operations involving subcontracted personnel.
Workers remained gathered outside the facilities on Wednesday as the 24-hour industrial action continued.
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