SENATE PRESIDENT DAVID MARK
SENATE PRESIDENT DAVID MARK

Oil workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have concluded plans to shut down all oil and gas installations in the country due to the anti-labour activities of some employers in the sector.



The anti-labour activities listed by the oil workers include unjust delay in passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), retardation of staff promotion in the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), non-standardisation of nomenclature and collective bargaining agreement of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA) in line with what obtains in other agencies in the oil and gas industry, refusal of the Management of Addax/Petrostuff Nigeria Limited and Chevron/Sudelletra to recall sacked staff, Petrobras management unprocedural release of Staff and its refusal to renew expired Collective Agreement, the unjust termination of appointment of the Port Harcourt Zonal Secretary and Treasurer of PENGASSAN and NUPENG respectively.

Other issues are the perilous state of the nation’s strategic and industrial roads and highways, non-beneficial deductions of National Housing Fund (NHF) from our workers, un-abating measures of addressing pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft, and divestments by International Oil Companies (IOCs) without clear guidelines to check the resultant arbitrary job losses, heightening insecurity of our members/families in the troubled parts of Northern Nigeria.

According to a statement issued by PENGASSAN Secretariat, plans are at the final stage with its sister union, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to mobilise members for a nationwide industrial actions that will disrupt operations in the oil and gas sector until the Federal Government show genuine intention to earnestly attend and resolve the enumerated issues at stake.

PENGASSAN noted that the 14-day ultimatum given by its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of 30th October 2014 with the Federal Government and other concerned employers’ and agencies and further ratified by the Joint NEC of both NUPENG and PENGASSAN on October 31st, 2014, had since expired without any meaningful resolution or commitment from either the government or the concerned employers’ and agencies at resolving the issues.

The statement hinted that all levels of the Union have been fully sensitised and mobilised for the inevitable industrial actions that will affect every value chain in the upstream, midstream and downstream of the oil and gas industry.

The union explained that the purported termination of the appointment of its Port Harcourt Zonal Secretary, the NUPENG Zonal Treasurer was an ill-conceived act of victimization by their Employers and which the NNPC, Federal Ministries of Petroleum Resources and Labour and Productivity, the Department of Security Services (DSS), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has advised their management against this act but they remained unbending.

On crude oil theft and acts of vandalism, PENGASSAN alleged high level collaboration of the security agencies, politicians and highly placed Nigerians in the buccaneering racket of oil and gas installations and the resultant crude oil theft, adding that the ugly trend signifies a looming extinction of the oil and gas industry with attendant job losses. These further endanger the national economy with the persistent drop in crude oil prices.

The Association called on the Federal Government to mobilise contractors to site for immediate repair of all perilous roads leading to all oil and gas installations in the country, especially the Shaguolo/Alternative Road to the PPMC depot in Warri, Eleme/Onne Road, Apapa/Ijora/Wharf Road, Tin Can Island Roads, and Port Harcourt/Enugu Road.

The Association described the deduction from workers’ salaries for the National Housing Fund (NHF) as sheer exploitation and demand that the deduction should be stopped forthwith, saying that it would be forced to resort to whatever necessary labour action it deems appropriate to protect its members from further exploitation of the non-beneficial policies that has serve no member’s interest in the Sector.

The national body of the apex Union in the Oil and Gas industry have also mobilised its members to various Internally Displaced Persons’ centres across the nations to deliver relief materials and alternative conditions of living especially for women and children. It stressed that anything short of purposeful dialogue to resolving the issues will spark the fully mobilized action. The Association’s position is corroborated by the interview granted by Vanguard Sweet Crude on December 2 2014 to Comrade Igwe Achese, as the Chairman of Joint Council NUPENGASSAN, which buttressed the unfathomable industrial action that is looming in the sector .COM

B: Tosin Areo