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Tag: PENGASSAN

  • PENGASSAN warns of imminent strike

    PENGASSAN warns of imminent strike

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has threatened to go on indefinite strike by Monday over the anti-labour activities of ExxonMobil and the sacking of some of their members by the company.

    Addressing reporters in front of Exxon Mobil premises in Victoria Island office, its Lagos Chapter Secretary, Comrade Georg-day warning strike, saying that the full strike will commence on Monday if their conditions were not met.

    Olusola accused the company of sacking of about 83 of its members who are Nigerians without terminal benefits.

    He also accused the management of the oil company of sacking its members, while negotiations were still on going.

  • PENGASSAN threatens to shut down ExxonMobil over job insecurity

    PENGASSAN threatens to shut down ExxonMobil over job insecurity

    Workers of Mobil Producing Nigeria Limited (MPNL) yesterday decried job insecurity, disregard for Joint Venture agreements and capital flight in the company.

    They threatened to shut down operations of the oil giant next Monday, if the anomalies were not addressed.

    Leaders of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) at MPNL said the union would continue to kick against sack of Nigerians, if they were replaced by expatriates.

    Addressing reporters after an extra-ordinary congress at Victoria Crown Plaza Hotel in Lagos, Vice Chairman MPNL branch of PENGASSAN, Comrade Gbenga Ekundayo, accused the management of high-handedness against Nigerians, even though the country, in line with the terms of the JV agreements, paid 60 per cent of the cost of crude oil explored by the oil company.

    He said a similar congress was held at Mobil’s two terminals – Qua-Iboe Terminal in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, and Bonny River Terminal in Rivers State – to sensitise workers who he said had resolved to fight the alleged injustice the company meted out to them.

    The union leader traced the industrial crisis to the management’s alleged unilateral decision to sack 83 workers, despite a ministerial intervention.

    After deliberations, the ministerial body reportedly  approved the disengagement of 73 workers, while 10 were ordered to be return to work.

    Ekundayo said contrary to the agreement with representatives of the workers and the government, ExxonMobil management allegedly sacked the workers without complying with the provisions of the CBA and extant labour laws.

    The management, he said, disregarded the intervention of Minister of State for Petroleum Resources on the matter.

    The union leader said the management also breached the decisions reached at the March 27 meeting at Black Diamond, Lagos, on the fate of the affected workers.

    According to him, on April 28, officials of the union were invited for questioning by the Department of State Services (DSS) on the December 2016 strike.

    Ekundayo said the management followed this up with a suspension letter and an invitation to a disciplinary meeting, contrary to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) forbidding retribution by either party.

    PENGASSAN’s Lagos chapter’s Secretary, George Olumoroti, said the national body supported the struggle to free Nigerian workers from what he called the oil company’s imperialism.

    He said Nigerians working at the oil company as security, logistics and human resources officers were sacked on the excuse of economic crunch while expatriates were hired to fill the positions.

  • PENGASSAN, NUPENG picket Lagos, P/Harcourt GE offices

    PENGASSAN, NUPENG picket Lagos, P/Harcourt GE offices

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff  of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) yesterday shut down General Electric’s (GE’s) office at Bishop Aboyade Cole Street, Victoria Island over the its failure  to honour the agreement it signed with Arco Group Plc, a member of PENGASSAN  and  leading oil and gas servicing company.

    Also in Port Harcourt, PENGASSAN was joined in the picketing by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

    The oil workers accused GE of failing to pay Arco and the workers for services rendered. These include outstanding allowances, overall allowance, severance and contract allowances.

    The picketing started around 6.30 am, with hundreds of members of PENGASSAN blocking the entrance into GE’s office, thereby paralysing activities of the company.

    Addressing reporters, Lagos Zonal Chairman, PENGASSAN, Comrade Abel Agarin, said the union decided to picket GE because the company has failed to honour   the agreement  between the two parties, despite the involvement of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige in the matter.

    Agarin said the picketing became inevitable because GE has failed to pay Arco Group, demobilisation due to them to enable them pay their workers, having been laid off from the OBOB/Ebocha/KwaleAgip gas plants in the Niger Delta without their severance benefits.

    The workers were declared redundant with effect from October last year and their services severed.

    Mr. Agarin lamented that the workers who are now jobless are facing untold hardship and GE appeared to be unmindful of their situation over these last six months. He referred to the meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige in Abuja on November 30 last year and attended by all stakeholders in the matter. He said GE in the presence of the Ngige gave an undertaking to pay to Arco, the money due to it once Arco fulfilled all requirements for demobilisation from the gas plants.

    Mr. Agarin expressed surprise that GE reneged on the undertaking to pay the money within 30 days of Arco’s demobilisation from the gas plants.

    “Instead of paying the prescribed demobilisation fee to Arco to enable Arco to pay the severance benefits of over 150 members of their Union that are affected by the lay-off from OBOB/Kwale/Eboch gas plants, GE is busy demanding untenable conditions for payment even when Agip had certified the demobilisation of Arco from the gas plants.

    “This is a downright negation of the promise that GE made before the Minister of Labour and Employment and other stakeholders at the November 30, 2016 meeting which representatives of PENGASSAN also attended,” Mr. Agarin added.

  • PENGASSAN rejects proposed NLNG Act amendment

    PENGASSAN rejects proposed NLNG Act amendment

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has opposed the  House of Representatives’s plan to amend the NLNG (Fiscal Incentives, Guarantees and Assurances) Act, describing it as unnecessary.

    It said: “The amendment can cause imminent losses that will far outweigh any doubtful gains.”

    In a statement titled: “Proposed amendment of the NLNG Act: Economic and security implications for the nation,” signed by PENGASSAN President Comrade Francis Johnson, and Acting General Secretary Comrade Lumumba Okugbawa, the union said the amendment would impact negatively on the image of the country.

    PENGASSAN argued that the international community would perceive Nigeria as a country which does not honour its promises nor take its calls for foreign investments serious.

    The amendment, it said, could affect $25 billion foreign investments, 18,000 jobs from NLNG’s Train 7 and 8 programmes, and negate the job creation and security policy of the Buhari-led administration.

    The union added that the National Assembly’s  proposed action would also not only affect recent gains from the reduction in gas flaring – from 65 per cent to less than 20 per cent – and lead to the loss of up to $124 million yearly paid as taxes and dividends to the Federal Government.

    The union noted that it was essential that the country get the confidence of the international investor community to sustain critical investments, especially the stalled Brass and OK LNG projects.

    ”Our legislators should make laws that will improve existing businesses in the country and also attract new investments, and not laws which will stifle business, employment and/or erode investor confidence. The interest of the Nigerians must remain paramount,” the union said.

  • TUC, PENGASSAN: Nigerian firms enslave workers

    TUC, PENGASSAN: Nigerian firms enslave workers

    •Indicted firm’s chief won’t comment

    The Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigerian (PENGASSAN) have criticised Nigerian companies for allegedly treating workers as slaves and sacking them at will.
    They regretted that indigenous companies treated Nigerians without respect for their rights and Labour laws.
    TUC spoke during the recent picketing of Specialty Drilling Fluid (SDF), an indigenous oil servicing firm in the Niger Delta.
    PENGASSAN, which led the action, accused SDF of violating the terms of engagement of their workers.
    Addressing reporters in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, TUC State Chairman Austin Jonah said while many Nigerians were yearning for indigenous companies to take over most of the sectors, they were worried that most Nigerian companies were violating their workers’ rights.
    Jonah said: “We support PENGASSAN in its action against SDF. TUC will make sure that it supports any action PENGASSAN takes to the fullest. If it means shutting down, we will. We will call those involved to see how these workers should be given their money.
    “We are talking of local content. Today, Nigerians have companies in the Oil and Gas sector. But they are punishing fellow Nigerians. They do not pay workers’ salaries and other entitlements as at when due.
    “They engage them as casual workers for 10 years and sack them at will. But the extant law only allows that a worker be in casual status for three months. If you still need the services of the person, you engage them permanently. Is that how we are going to enjoy the local content? If this is the way, then, they have started disappointing Nigerians.”
    The Chairman of Port Harcourt Zone of PENGASSAN, Azubuike Azubuike, said Nigerian workers at SDF were not respected.
    The union leader said attempts to ensure that SDF paid the salary arrears it owed the workers were unsuccessful.
    He urged Nigerians to intervene in the matter to avoid a national industrial action.
    Azubuike said: “It has become imperative that the public should know what the workers are passing through, especially in places our brothers are holding sway as owners of organisations. SDF, in the last 12 years, has been punishing its workers, who work without getting any benefit.
    “The collective bargain agreement is not being fulfilled, despite the fact that there had been meetings to reach an agreement. The Managing Director, Mr. Tony Eze, has refused to pay the workers their entitlements. The workers tried to picket the company, but the MD hired thugs and chased them away. Since 2008, we have signed several communiqués to ensure a good relationship between the company and its workers.
    “If things are not done properly, we will move the picketing to another stage. They cannot enslave their workers. People have worked for 10 years without employment letter. Somebody can be sacked any day.”
    Contacted, Eze said he did not have any case with PENGASSEN.
    He declined further comments on the matter.

  • PENGASSAN to end strike over Exxon Mobil sackings

    Nigerian oil workers at Exxon Mobil have decided to end a strike over sackings of staff after earlier agreeing to halt crude oil production, a union official has said.

    “Production will resume any moment,” Lumumba Okugbara, the Acting General Secretary of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), told Reuters: “We just rose from a meeting with the management and the issues that had led to the labour impasse have been resolved after the minister of petroleum intervened.”

    He did not say by how much crude production had been affected since the union shut down Exxon Mobil’s Nigeria headquarters in Lagos to protest against the sackings of more than 100 employees last week.

    “It was not a total shut down,” he said, adding that workers at Exxon facilities had downed tools when the company handed out sack letters on Monday.

    “I cannot tell you for now whether the company has agreed to stop sacking of workers or not but the doors for further negotiations are open,” Okugbara said.

    Exxon could not immediately be reached for comment.

  • PENGASSAN to Buhari: Don’t scrap NNPC, others

    PENGASSAN to Buhari: Don’t scrap NNPC, others

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has advised the Federal Government to rescind its decision to scrap the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other regulatory agencies in the sector.

    Its spokesman, Comrade Emmanuel Ojugbana, said the decision of the government was at variance with reforms globally.

    “While it is important to note that a wholesome reform in the oil and gas industry is desirable and proper, it is equally not advisable to contemplate any sort of restructuring without the buy-in of the persons such action will directly or indirectly impact. It is curious to note that a critical aspect of organisational reforms like the work force would be over-looked in the current contemplation,” the oil workers scribe lamented.

    According to him, it is only the National Assembly that has the powers to either repeal or enact laws on corporations and agencies duly set up by law.

    The body said its attention was drawn to a proposal by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to ‘restructure’ the industry, particularly the scrapping of selected regulatory agencies and NNPC, adding that several stakeholders’ forum had been held on such a plan by the Ministry.

    PENGASSANsaid it has been at the fore front of getting the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) passed into law by the National Assembly.

    PENGASSAN said: “We had made several input known on some burning issues which include job security, job creation, transparency in fiscal regime, infrastructural development, promotion of local content, local refining capacity, community development and wealth creation for Nigerians.

    “While exercising tremendous restraint at joining issues, we owe it a duty to the general public and our stakeholders to state that we are completely in the dark with regard to the proposed industry road map.  We have continued to serve as the voice of reason within the Nigerian set up insisting on genuine reforms that will sanitise the system and regain the confidence of Nigerians and stakeholders in the industry.”

    PENGASSAN, however, expressed readiness to support any initiative aimed at revamping the oil and gas industry just as it will challenge under-development and impoverishment of Nigerians under the guise of restructuring.

  • Why trade unions are divided, by PENGASSAN

    Why trade unions are divided, by PENGASSAN

    Labour has failed to achieve its objectives of promoting workers’ interest because of internal divisions, factionalisation, power struggle and disunity, a unionist has said.

    The chairman, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senor Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), Comrade Chika Onuegbu urged unions to close ranks to achieve their objectives.

    The PENGASSAN chief, who spoke at a forum organised by the Rivers State chapter of Trade Union Congress (TUC), called  for unity among labour unions, saying the movement is failing because of the emergence of new forms of taxation; rising violence, intolerance and economic depression.

    He said labour bodies  must strive to bring in a larger chunk of workers within the informal sector who are yearning for representation. Trade unions, he said, must seek avenues to rediscover themselves, their values, as well as improve and respond to the needs of members in the light of the changing times.

    He also said the movement must seek to participate directly in the economic activities of Nigeria, which will help it to build financial muscles and wean it from the challenges of unsteady check-off dues, thereby positioning them to be strategic players of some sort the industries.

    Onuegbu said this will give labour  the leverage in negotiations with other social partners. “We must appreciate those unions that have gone into the property market, the hospitality industry, the bakery and confectionery sector and those that are into service delivery as businesses. These investments will surely grow and will serve as pillars tomorrow for the movement’s survival,” he said

    In a related event, the union has threatened to resume its suspended strike if the Federal Government refuses to enforce the implementation of an agreement reached with the association.

    In a statement, PENGASSAN said it had written a letter addressed to the Minister of Labour and Productivity dated August 22, 2016 and signed by the acting General Secretary, PENGASSAN, Mr. Lumumba Okugbawa.

    PENGASSAN stated that there has not been much progress or commitment to implementing the tenets of the agreement since it was signed over a month ago.

    The union therefore urged the minister to intervene so as to avert another round of nationwide strike.

    Three months ago, PENGASSAN, the Federal Government and the International Oil Companies (IOCs) signed a tripartite agreement. Some of its highlight includes the recall of over 2000 sacked workers in the sector and pay-off of $4.8 billion arrears of the old joint venture cash calls inherited by the present administration.

    Others are: tackling the issues of insurgency and pipeline vandalism, kidnapping of oil workers and repair of major roads leading to the refineries, among others.

  • Fuel crisis imminent as PENGASSAN threatens strike

    Fuel crisis imminent as PENGASSAN threatens strike

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) at the weekend threatened to resume its suspended strike if the Federal Government failed to intervene in an agreement it signed with the stakeholders in the industry.

    In a letter to the Minister of Labour and Employment dated August 22, this year, the group’s Acting General Secretary, Comrade Lumumba Ighotemu Okugbawa, stated that since the agreement was signed over a month ago, it had not been executed.

    The union urged the minister to call the defaulting managements to order to avert another strike. It expressed dismay at the disobedience of the directive from the Federal Government on the issue to the managements of the affected firms.

    Copies of the letter were sent to the Director-General, State Security Services (SSS), the Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS).

    According to PENGASSAN, the agreement was reached at the end of the conciliation meetings  at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment with PENGASSAN, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and other stakeholders on July 12, 14 and 21 in Abuja.

    “It is over a month now since the last communiqué was reached and we can say in summation that no much progress has been achieved. This, of course, is making our members restive and we are under tremendous pressure to bring about a total resolution on all the contending issues.

    “We are constrained therefore to note with great dismay that most of the companies are foot-dragging and have resorted to time-wasting tactics in order to deliberately frustrate the process. We are, therefore, based on the above, requesting that you use your good office to intervene by calling on the managements of these companies to quickly implement these resolutions as it affects them,” the letter stated.

    PENGASSAN warned that it would on strike if the firms refused to honour the deal.

    The union listed the defaulting firms to include Mobil Producing Nigeria Contract Staff Forum, Fugro Nigeria Limited, Petrostuff Nigeria, Tecon, Frontier Oil Limited, Universal Energy Resources Limited, Pan Ocean, Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited, CISCON, and Baker Hughes.

    PENGASSAN National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Emmanuel Ojugbana, explained that the agreement was signed as a prerequisite to calling off the last national strike by the union, adding that the managements of the firms should respect the  agreements.

    He said: “This is not a product of pronouncement but an agreement reached by all stakeholders including the managements of the companies involved. I don’t see any reason why it is difficult for them to respect this agreement as contained in the communiqué.

    “If the companies know that they cannot obey the constitution of Nigeria, the extant labour laws of our country and other relevant authorities in government, they should just pack and leave the business for those that are ready to do so.”

    Ojugbana called on NAPIMS to ensure that the firms implement the agreement, calling on the Ministers of Petroleum Resources as well as its Labour and Employment counterpart to intervene to avert another strike.

    He urged well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the  firms to respect the agreement.

  • Recall of sacked workers: PENGASSAN canvasses firms’ compliance

    Recall of sacked workers: PENGASSAN canvasses firms’ compliance

    The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has urged the Federal Government to take measures against agencies and oil companies that behave as if they are more powerful than the government and not answerable to it.

    Recently, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, met with oil firms and an agreement was reached not to sack their workers and  to recall sacked workers in the oil sector.

    According to PENGASSAN, some of the oil firms reneged on the agreement.

    Speaking at the Third Women in PENGASSAN National Conference in Abuja,  PENGASSAN President, Comrade Francis Olabode Johnson  said such attitude was not acceptable to the union.

    He said: “We have been having a series of meetings with the government team. You cannot have an agreement with the minister standing in for the President of the Federal Republic and when it’s time to take action, you say no. We, only suspended our strike. If these issues are not addressed properly, we may have to resume the strike.

    “But we don’t like taking that route. That is why we are imploring every agency of the government that whatever agreement reached must be respected. We will abide by our side of the agreement, but if they are not ready to honour theirs, we will have no choice than to resume our suspended strike.’’

    “We had an understanding, but today what we are hearing is that some of them are reneging, especially Fugro Nig Ltd. I must be specific here. They are reneging. If the minister, who is standing in for Mr. President, took a decision and they are reneging, that is an affront on the President of Nigeria. If you know you have no respect for the President, then you pack your things and get out of the country.’’

    Johnson also said the leadership of PENGASSAN would meet with the Federal Government over the threat by the Niger Delta Avengers to kill oil workers, warning that the group’s threat should not be taken lightly by the government.

    “We are having a meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment. In view of the issue on ground, this is something we should take as priority. Whatever the issue, let government look for a way to fast track everything and discuss so that there can be peace in this country.

    “This is not time for us to start destroying ourselves and our properties and oil installations. We all need to work together as a country so that Nigeria can rise from the ashes of what we are going through,” Olabode said.