By Femi Aribisala

The message Chris Ngige delivered to ExxonMobil loud and clear is that it does not have to be subject to Nigerian laws. It can operate here in Nigeria as a law unto itself.

Dr. Chris Ngige
Last week, I complained that 860 Nigerian workers at ExxonMobil (Nigeria) are being treated like orphans in Nigeria; their home-country. They have fought this injustice with fortitude and resilience in the courts for 18 long years, during which 171 of them have died along the way (one more since last week).

In court, ExxonMobil denied that the workers are its employees. It claimed instead that they are “SPY Police” in the attempt to circumvent its lawful commitments to them. The Nigerian workers, on the other hand, maintained they are directly employed by ExxonMobil and, therefore, should be treated as ExxonMobil staff.

This case has gone all the way to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. In April 2018, the Supreme Court finally rejected ExxonMobil’s denials outright. It affirmed that the Nigerian workers are bona fide staff of ExxonMobil. Therefore, it ruled that they are entitled to every benefit applicable to other ExxonMobil personnel in other departments of the company and must be paid accordingly.

However, instead of abiding by this verdict of the apex court of Nigeria, ExxonMobil took the outrageous step of sacking 507 of the workers in one day; locking them all out of its building.

When the workers protested by picketing ExxonMobil outfits, the multinational had the audacity to take to the Industrial Court of Nigeria the same matter that had already been adjudicated by the Supreme Court. The Industrial Court also threw out ExxonMobil’s case, affirming the right of the workers to picket. Nevertheless, ExxonMobil as refused to budge.

I said last week: “This kind of arrogance by a foreign company should not be allowed to prevail in Nigeria. What is Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment doing? The message must be sent to ExxonMobil loud and clear that, as long as it is operating within the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it must be subject to Nigerian laws. It cannot operate here in Nigeria as a law unto itself.”

Betrayal

However, the message Chris Ngige delivered to ExxonMobil loud and clear is that it does not have to be subject to Nigerian laws. It can operate here in Nigeria as a law unto itself.

Instead of fighting for the rights of the Nigerian workers in Nigeria, Chris Ngige, the Minister for Labour and Employment, is fighting for the rights of ExxonMobil, a foreign multinational in Nigeria.

On the very day my article was published last week, Chris Ngige, convened a hurried meeting of the parties in the dispute. However, rather than tell ExxonMobil it has to obey the verdict of the Supreme Court, Ngige presented a settlement package contravening the position of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court said the Nigerian workers should not regarded as “SPY Police” but as bona fide Exxon Mobil employees. But Ngige said they should be regarded as “SPY Police.” This means they would be paid based on police or civil service structures instead of those of an international oil company. He then gave the workers 48 hours to stop their protest before any of the so-called benefits he itemized for them can be paid.

Foreign agent

Contrary to what has been presented in ExxonMobil newspaper advertorials and in the circular of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the representatives of the striking workers rejected in totality this one-sided intervention of Chris Ngige.

One of the striking workers said: “Dr Ngige is not our employer nor have we applied to work in the Ministry of Labour, therefore, our benefits cannot be packaged by him or the Ministry headed by him. Our representatives haven’t signed any document because those pronounced packages by the Minister are not in line with Mobil’s policy. We therefore resent, reject and discard such package by Mobil and the Minister of Labour.”

“For over 30 years we have been governed by ExxonMobil policies, guidelines, rules and company laws. So, we cannot be separated by a Civil Service Rule conceived by Mobil and implemented (planned) by the Nigeria’s Minister of Labour. The separation benefits as mentioned by Mobil and the Minister are unacceptable to us because Mobil bluntly refused to execute the judgement of the Apex Court of Nigeria.”


http://news.bestnaira.com/posts/view/chris-ngige-fight-for-oppressive-exxnmobile-instead-of-oppressed-nigerian-workers

The thing be say those people were not direct staff of mobil how then can they be compensated by mobil.
B4 you work 4 company you must understand you are working for.
E.g 85% of zenit bank workers were being employed by peolpe plus ltd not zenith bank

^^^
It is called outsourcing. The nature of the work or activities required to complete tasks are the same whether you are employee or contractor. The difference is they outsourced staffing to a hiring firm who contracts the position out at a lower wage rate. In certain cases there are second tier outsourcing....where the hiring firm even outsourced the contract to another hiring firm. Oil is a primary attraction in the employment market and so we rush to join oil companies because of the attractive wages and benefits. The people they hire are skilled in their field. So that attraction should not be trivialized, not by the oil company, not by the minister.

Moreover, how would the minister thoroughly collect data for statistical indexing of productivity, wages and efficiency in the oil industry if he doesn't see that a class of skills and manpower to produce a commodity is essential to tabulate for correct analysis on job growth and resourcefullness?

The minister berated his own office by meeting with oil producers to discuss employee relations. He should have designated a Director (not even the DG but a Director) to coordinate with NLC (labour) mediators and meet first with the employees before meeting with the oil company. At the end of the day the ministry must not deviate from Supreme Court ruling, at its minimum....but demand for more concessions for the employees.

Im dissapointed in the Hon. Minister.