PENGASSAN threatens strike over anti-labour practices

Members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria have threatened to shut down operations and activities in the nation’s oil and gas industry if some employers in the industry do not stop their anti-labour practices.

The oil workers issued a seven-day ultimatum within which employers in the industry should put an end to all anti-labour practices in their companies.

It said failure to do this will result in an industrial action that will lead to a total shut down of the oil and gas industry.

Other industrial issues raised by the Association included the review of the lingering irregular Joint Venture funding and Cash Call payment arrears, lack of a clear cut direction on the Petroleum Industry Bill and forceful co-option of government agencies in the industry into the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.

In a statement signed by its National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Emmanuel Ojugbana, the Association said despite agreement reached between the tripartite – the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, employers and the two trade unions in the industry, PENGASSAN and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers – some employers still went ahead to sever employment of some workers, including national officers of PENGASSAN.

Comrade Ojugbana said:

“Despite the agreement that employers should put on hold redundancy in the industry, some managements such as Fugro, Universal Energy, Frontier Services and Petrostuff went ahead to sack many of our members including key union officers and national officer.

“I want to reiterate our demands that the Federal Government and the concern organisations including H15, IEME Chevron, Universal Energy, Chevron Contracts Tecon and Avion Oil and Fugro should resolve the critical industrial relation issues in their companies; particularly in the recent retrenchment in Fugro and Petrostuff should be reversed.

“Let us stated unequivocally that industrial peace in the oil and gas sector will not be guaranteed if these issues, especially the retrenchment in Fugro, are not resolved within seven (7) days effective Monday, June 20, 2016.”

“As a major stakeholder in the oil and gas industry, we are again calling on the NAPIMS to put in place a clear policy statement against frequent redundancy plans by operators under the guise of fluctuating crude oil prices.”

The PENGASSAN spokesman said that apart from the arrears, the current cash call are delayed and even when paid, it is much below approved cash call without consideration of JV commitment including staff salaries.

“The effect of non-payment has led to thousands of job losses across the sectors and non-creation of new jobs against the backdrop of the electoral promises of employment generation by the current government.

“A stitch in time saves nine.”