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There could be yet another fuel scarcity in the country if the recent threat by the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) is not addressed. The body has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Federal Government over the unresolved issues affecting Chevron contract workers and other anti-labour practices.
A statement by NUPENG President, Mr. Igwe Achese, warned that if the Federal Government fails to intervene in the unresolved anti-labour practices of Chevron at the expiration of the ultimatum, it would commence a nationwide strike without further notice.
The union explained that it has watched with keen interest the resolution reached with the union, Chevron and the Federal Ministry of Labour and yet termination of the jobs of its members was still ongoing.
Achese lamented that despite the intervention of the Federal Ministries of Labour, Petroleum Resources, Chevron and its labour contractors have not deemed it fit to honour the resolutions reached at all its meetings.
According to him, some of the unresolved issues include job categorisation of the members who have workers as contract staff for over 25 years.
His words: “Chevron Nigeria Limited, in its bid to deplete the numerical strength of NUPENG, introduced obnoxious criteria of using remuneration to determine which union the contract workers would belong to in the company.
“Other issues include the massive retirement of our members by the management of the various Chevron labour contractors without due process”.
He stated that some of the workers transited from the former six contractors to the new 16 contractors were not paid their full entitlements as documented by NAPIMS and were therefore shortchanged.
Achese explained further that Chevron disregarded all agreements reached with the Federal Ministry of Labour and refused to appear in a meeting convened by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Abuja last week.
“The company has begun secret recruitment of workers in order to phase out NUPENG members and that will be resisted at all cost,” Achese said.