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Tag: Strike

  • Ngige to PENGASSAN: shelve your planned strike

    Ngige to PENGASSAN: shelve your planned strike

    •There’s agreement, says minister

    Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige has appealed to members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) to shelve their planned strike scheduled to begin today, in the spirit of the conciliation brokered between it and Neconde Energy Services Ltd.

    The union is asking the government to compel the company to recalled all sacked workers within seven days and stick to the nation’s labour laws.

    It added that failure to do that, the union will have no other option than to call out its members on a nationwide indefinite strike action with effect from today.

    The union accused Neconde Energy of entrenching unfriendly labour practices in contravention of the nation’s labour laws and failing to remit taxes and pensions deducted from workers to government.

    However, Deputy Director, Press in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment Samuel Olowookere said in a statement in Abuja yesterday that with the conciliatory meeting brokered by Minister of Labour and Employment, the impending action by PENGASSAN has effectively been arrested in line with the provisions of the relevant labour laws.

    The statement said “We recall that the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige had on Wednesday, December 13 and Thursday, December 14, 2017, brokered long hours of conciliation  between PENGASSAN and Neconde Energy Services Ltd and secured  an agreement.

    “By that agreement, Neconde shall invite the sacked branch chairman of PENGASSAN and hold heart to heart discussion with him while PENGASSAN is to hold back proposed action pending the reconvening of the meeting in the second week of January 2018  when other contending issues relating to other oil companies would be also be sorted out.

    “We, therefore, wish to appeal to the Central Working Committee of PENGASSAN to reconsider its decision, respect the agreement and call off the scheduled action in the overall interest of the nation, more so when adequate notice of strike was not given.

    “This appeal has become imperative in order to save Nigerians from further hardship in this season of Christmas and the New year.”

  • PENGASSAN begins strike Monday as peace parley ends in stalemate

    PENGASSAN begins strike Monday as peace parley ends in stalemate

    The Petroleum  and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) is set to embark on indefinite strike beginning from Monday, following a stalemate in the peace meeting the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Kachikwu, brokered between the union and Neconde Energy Limited.

    PENGASSAN and Neconde have been embroiled in crisis over allegation of anti-worker practices.

    PENGASSAN, the umbrella body of senior workers in the oil and gas sector, alleged that the management of Neconde wrongly terminated the employment of some of its workers, threatening to go on strike if the sacked workers were not recalled within 72 hours.

    The matter caused Kachikwu to initiate a meeting between the two warring bodies in Abuja during the week, but the meeting ended in a deadlock.

    In a release signed by PENGASSAN Public Relation Office, Fortune Obi, and made available to The Nation yesterday, PENGASSAN said it would embark on industrial action on Monday.

    Obi said: “Following the failure of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, to settle the rift between this body (PENGASSAN) and Neconde, the management of PENGASSAN has agreed to start the strike on Monday night (December 18th, 2017).

    “Prior to the strike, PENGASSAN will hold an emergency Central Working  Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday morning, which will be followed with announcement of strike on the night of Monday.’’

    The union said it has put its workers across the country on standby for the strike, adding that nothing whatsoever would stop the body from starting the strike by midnight on Monday.

    PENGASSAN’s Lagos Zonal Chairman, Abel Agarin, had in a communiqué said it would not tolerate any act of victimization against any of its members.

    He said the union’s position was that the termination of employment of some workers by Neconde was unlawful, as it was not in line with equity, good conscience and industrial relations best practices and extant labour laws.

  • Food and beverage workers begin indefinite strike

    Food and beverage workers begin indefinite strike

    Sequel to their protest last week over the refusal of their employers to review the expired bi-yearly collective agreement on salaries and fringe benefits, the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) has begun  an indefinite strike.

    A meeting was held on  December 8 between members of FOBTOB and their employers, Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), to reconcile.

    FOBTOB had earlier called for the upward  review of their salary by 20 per cent as against the current 14 per cent, which, according to them, is the lowest rate in the past 17 years.

    In a statement signed by FOBTOB National President Comrade Quadri Olaleye, the union said: “With the majority of our employers being multinationals such as Flour Mills of Nigeria, Guinness Nigeria Plc, A & P Pladis Foods, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Ajinomoto, Deli Foods, Dangote Industries, Nestle, Cadbury Nigeria, Dufil Prima Indomie, among others, it is unacceptable to us that they continue to discriminate against our members in the payment of salaries and fringe benefits after having met their targets and remained profitable.

    “It is on record that throughout our industry, all other cadres have in the past months enjoyed a review in their salaries and fringe benefits while the Senior Staff and Managers have been tactically abandoned.

    “To this effect, we are calling all our members nationwide to embark on a national strike action to compel the AFBTE to reach an equally acceptable agreement from December 11, 2017 as from 12am prompt.”

    Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has condemned outrightly AFBTE  members’ decision to deny a reasonable increment of 20 per cent in the ongoing negotiation between the employers’ body and FOBTOB members at the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC).

    The congress in a statement by its President, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, was worried that this long overdue increment cum benefit, which is clearly affordable within the industry and has in fact, already been awarded to the junior staff could now be allowed to degenerate into a nationwide strike at this critical festive period when products of the industry would be in higher demand.

    He said: “Increasing the wages of the junior staff to the extent that they (junior staff) now prefer not to be promoted to management level for us is a deliberate attempt to spite our members and it further speaks volume of the injustice in the system.

    “We are equally concerned about the posture of the representatives of the employers at the NJIC negotiations. It appears the NJIC was deliberately constituted to spite the senior staff. Any act to diminish the dignity of our members is unacceptable.”

  • Cross River NLC to resume strike

    Cross River NLC to resume strike

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Cross River State has given Governor Ben Ayade a seven-day ultimatum, beginning from yesterday, to implement a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached between them on July 2, or else workers will resume strike.

    Addressing reporters at the end of a State Executive Council (SEC) meeting at the NLC secretariat in Calabar, NLC Chairman, Comrade John Ushie, said the governor had failed workers by reneging on the agreement.

    Workers embarked on an indefinite strike earlier this year, which they suspended after reaching an agreement with the government on July 2.

    Ushie said: “We express our disappointment at the government for failure to honour some critical aspects of the MoU signed on July 2. Among them is the failure of the government to pay gratuity to retirees from June 2013 to date.

    “We are also aware that the government, after the suspension of the strike on July 2, agreed to pay that week. The 2013 retirees were to be paid their gratuity. But we are here again to tell the whole world that the agreement was not kept and that the government has jettisoned the agreement again. This led to this meeting today as directed by the National Executive Council meeting held on November 16, where the NEC directed councils where the government has not implemented fully, the payment of salaries, arrears of salaries, arrears of pensions and gratuities to go back and put it into force. And that was done on the basis of the fact that the Paris Club refund has been released to state governments and that the money is meant to pay arrears of salaries, gratuities and pension.”

    He said the government had also failed the workers in terms of implementation of workers’ promotion; regularising the state payroll system; selective payment of imprest to Ministries, Departments and Agencies and failure to return the Etim Edem Motor Park to the National Union of Road Transport Workers, which were part of the MoU.

    Ushie said efforts to reach the government to resolve the issues proved abortive.

  • PENGASSAN threatens to embark on nationwide strike

    PENGASSAN threatens to embark on nationwide strike

    The leadership of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has asked Nigerians to stockpile enough petroleum products that will last them throughout the upcoming festive period, saying except the government intervene in the unfriendly Labour practices going on in the oil and gas sector, it will call out its members for a nationwide strike with effect from Monday, December 18, 2017

    In a statement made available to The Nation in Abuja signed by the General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, the union singled out one of the companies operating in the Sector, Neconde Energy Ltd (of Nestoil Group of companies) as one of the companies that has entrenched unfriendly Labour practices in contravention of the nation’s Labour laws.

    It accused the company of failing to remit taxes and pensions deducted from workers to government, while boasting that no government official can call it to order, adding that workers who decided to join unions are treated as slaves in their own country and dismissed from work”

    The union is asking the government to compel the company to recalled all sacked workers within seven days and stick to the nation’s Labour laws, adding that failure to do that, the union will have no other option than to call out its members on a nationwide indefinite strike action.

    The union said that the strike action will lead to shutting down all oil and gas installations, including disruptions to fuel supply and distribution, adding that the

    company has not only conducted itself as being above the provisions of extant laws and regulations guiding the operations of oil and gas companies in Nigeria, but has also severally boasted that no government agency can call it to order.

    The statement said: “The Association recalls her communique issued at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of October 13, 2017 held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. One of the resolutions thereof was the condemnation of Indigenous Oil and Gas Companies and Marginal Field Operators, concerning their anti labour posture and practices including the termination of the employment of any workers who has indicated willingness to belong to the union.

    “Those who are threatened and compelled to disown the union are then treated as slave workers within their own country. The case of Neconde Energy Ltd (of Nestoil Group of companies) is particularly worrisome as the issue of dignity in labour and infringement on workers’ rights to freedom of Association is foreign to them leading to mass sack of workers that joined the Union and dehumanization of same in total disregard to rule of engagement and the laws of the land.

    “The actions of companies such as Neconde in mass sack of Nigerian workers contribute in no small measure to the unending militancy in the Niger Delta.

    “This company has not only conducted itself as being above the provisions of extant laws and regulations guiding the operations of oil and gas companies in Nigeria, but has also severally boasted that no government agency can call it to order.

    “It was therefore no surprise that Neconde has defied multiple interventions from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the top Management of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) for the company to toe the path of law and order and comply with Nigerian labour laws.

    “The company is apparently bolstered by the fact that it has continued, without any sanctions from government regulatory authorities, to flagrantly breach the provisions of the Personal Income Tax Amendment Act (PITA) and Pension Reform Act (PRA) by not remitting deducted income taxes and pension contributions to the Lagos and Delta states’ boards of internal revenue and authorized Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) respectively.

    “The owners and management of Neconde have therefore made themselves to believe that they are above the laws and government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Having explored all options without getting the necessary understanding, and an apparent failure of relevant authorities of Government to call to order these recalcitrant organizations especially Neconde, PENGASSAN gives the Federal Government and its relevant Agencies seven (7) days’ notice to embark on a nationwide strike effective December 18, 2017 if government fails to direct the Management of  Neconde and other companies to recall our sacked members  as the only option to address this injustice and lawlessness.

    “PENGASSAN appeals to all Nigerians to show understanding and to use this window to stockpile adequate quantity of premium motor spirit (PMS) and other petroleum products that will last them during the upcoming festive period as this strike will be indefinite.”

  • IPMAN shelves planned strike

    IPMAN shelves planned strike

    The local chapter of IPMAN in Lagos says it has shelved its plan to withdraw services and shutdown its members’ over 900 fuel stations in Lagos State and parts of Ogun State.

    IPMAN  Chairman Alanamu Balogun announced the suspension after a stormy meeting of stakeholders at IPMAN’s Ejigbo secretariat yesterday.

    Alhaji Balogun said the suspension followed an appeal by the NNPC, which scheduled a meeting with IPMAN officials for December 14, at NNPC Headquarters.

    He said IPMAN yielded to NNPC’s appeal to end panic buying by members since the marketers announced their plan.

    Balogun told reporters that the proposed meeting with NNPC officials will determine the next line of action.

    He said: “But we don’t want to be seen by the government and the public as economic saboteurs because we have a stake in the economic stability of this country.”

    The IPMAN chief, however, debunked NNPC spokesman Ndu Ughamadu’s statement that there was enough fuel at the Ejigbo Satellite Depot, and that the price of fuel remained N133.38.

    According to him, such claim was far from the truth.

    “Mr. Ughamadu should rather come to Ejigbo and find out the true position of things instead of staying at Abuja and saying what is not correct,” Balogun said.

    Lagos IPMAN had threatened to withdraw its services from December 11, a decision that could mar the Yuletide in Lagos.

    IPMAN explained that it wanted to withdraw services because its members had been running their stations at a loss in the last eight months due to NNPC default in the bulk purchase agreement signed with IPMAN to sell fuel to members at N133.28 per litre.

    According to IPMAN, its members get a litre of fuel (PMS) from DAPMAN at N141, besides running costs, bank charges and expenses, which made it impossible for members to sell at N145, but at N146 per litre.

    It accused the NNPC of double standard. The NNPC, according to IPMAN, which refused to sell fuel to its members regularly, has been supplying DAPMAN at a price of N117 per litre and DAPMAN selling to IPMAN members at N141 per litre.

  • Strike: OAU closes till January 2

    Strike: OAU closes till January 2

    The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) at Ile-Ife in Osun State has told its students to go on break for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

    A statement by the university’s spokesman Abiodun Olarewaju said the holidays was occasioned by a strike called by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the senior members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).

    The statement reads: “As a result of the unpalatable occurrences occasioned by the strike of the OAU branch of the NASU, SSANU and NAAT, the Senate of the university, at its emergency meeting on Tuesday, December 5, has approved that students of the university should proceed on an “End-of-the-Year” break with immediate effect.”

    Students have until 4 p.m today (December 6) to leave the hostels.

    The statement urged parents/guardians to monitor their wards to ensure compliance with the university’s directive.

    The university set January 2, 2018, as resumption date.

     

  • Strike: OAU closes till Jan 2

    Strike: OAU closes till Jan 2

    The Obafemi Awolowo University ( OAU ), Ile-Ife, has asked its students to go break for the holidays.
    A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the University, Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju, noted that the holidays was occasioned by
    the strike called by the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
    The statement reads: “As a result of the unpalatable occurrences occasioned by the strike action of the Obafemi Awolowo University branch of the Non – Teaching Staff, which comprises  Non Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), the Senate of the University, at its emergency meeting held today, Tuesday, 5th December, 2017, has approved that the Students of the University should proceed on an “End of the Year” break with immediate effect.
    Students have until 4:00pm today (Wednesday, December 6, 2017) to leave the hostels.
    The state urged parents /guardians to monitor their wards to ensure compliance with the university’s directive.
    The university set January 2, 2018 as resumption date.
  • UNILORIN Non-Academic staff join strike

    UNILORIN Non-Academic staff join strike

    Non-academic staff members of the University of Ilorin, ( UNILORIN ) have joined the nationwide strike called to protest unfair deals from the federal government by their national body.
    The decision to join the strike, it was gathered was taken at a congress of the joint action committee, umbrella organ for three industrial unions in the system; the Non Academic Staff Union ( NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the NATS.
    At the congress, Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Abdulkarem Age allegedly made spirited efforts to talk the workers out of the but he was said to have been rebuffed by the workers.
    The workers, it was gathered said that they would not disobey the directive of the national body which had been duly communicated since last week.
    “He pleaded with to sustain our record at the university and even asked that we retain some critical sectors but we told him at the congress that the strike will be total” ‘ a source at the congress told our reporter.”
    When our reporter visited the university on Monday, the effect of the strike was yet to be felt as the workers were just returning from the congress.

    Read Also: UNILORIN, UNILAG record highest pass rates in bar exam

  • Why we’re resuming strike, by varsity non-teaching unions

    •Congress accuses govt of ‘deceit, divide and rule’

    Non-teaching staff of universities on the platform of the Joint Action Congress (JAC) have explained why they are  resuming their suspended strike  today.

    Their unions accused the Federal Government of deceiving them into suspending the strike action in the first place.

    The three unions are the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Non Academic Staff Union and the National Association of Academic Technologists.

    Addressing a news conference, the body’s National Chairman, Comrade Samson Ugokwe, said rather than implement the terms of settlement reached with the union, the government has decided to introduce divide and rule into universities to create disaffection among staff and unions.

    Ugbokwe said the Federal Government’s plan was designed to refuse payment of the shortfall in salaries of members.

    According to him, the Memorandum of Terms of Settlement entered into with the government by the three unions states, among others, that the N23 billion approved by the Federal Government is for the payment of arrears of Earned Allowances and it cuts across both teaching and non-teaching staff of the various Federal universities.

    It also required that trade unions under JAC are to update the templates already with the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) and submit same to the Federal Ministry of Education by Thursday September 21, 2017.

    In addition, he said the memorandum states that “as from 2018, efforts should be intensified to include the allowances in the annual budgets of the universities to enable payments to be made as and when due.

    “The government had commenced the payment of salary shortfalls, but the universities are to provide the specific details of beneficiaries required by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to facilitate the payment.

    “The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) is to expedite action on the universities that have not been verified. Mandate payments to some universities were presented and sighted.”

    He added that the unions were informed that government through the NUC, had issued a circular directing the universities to implement the National Industrial Court (NIC) judgement in respect of University Staff Schools, while the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had initiated the process of ensuring compliance with the NIC judgment and it was hoped that the process would be concluded within four weeks of the meeting.

    Thereafter, the government would issue a Service Wide Circular in compliance with the NIC judgement.

    Ugokwe said these were part of the 10 points of settlement agreed with the government and signed in September with implementations expected to commence within one month.

    He expressed sadness that two months after the MoU was signed, the situation that warranted the strike in September remains.

    He added that none of the issues that prompted the strike in the first place has been addressed while “it appears that government through its officials have decided to orchestrate an evil plot to factionalise the university, cause disharmony and disaffection within the system, thereby destroying the emerging industrial peace we have been witnessing in recent time”.

    He said: “On the whole, it appears to us that the allocation as presently done is laced with a motive of destabilising the university system and causing disaffection among members of the university community, and we make bold to say that the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Architect Sonny Echono is complicit in this regard.

    “We see the recent development as a deliberate attempt to destabilise the Muhammadu Buhari administration and we call on the Federal Government to investigate this anomalous action by the Federal Ministry of Education, under Echono’s watch.

    “If not, why did the Federal Ministry of Education decide to calculate the payments for each university and union in the university? Why didn’t they go through the Governing Councils of the Universities in allocating the monies instead of a vague and blanket directive to Vice-Chancellors, sharing the money into two parts – ASUU and non-teaching? We see corruption written in bold and capital letters and we demand for an investigation.

    “The Joint Action Committee of NAAT, NASU and SSANU hereby state for the avoidance of any doubt, our rejection of the so-called allocation as it is obvious that we were conned by the Permanent Secretary, Architect Sonny Echono and the Minister of Labour and Employment, into believing that the N23 billion released for Earned Allowances cut across both teaching and non-teaching staff as we have now discovered it not to be so.

    “We, therefore, demand for a separate amount being the second tranche of arrears for payment of Earned Allowances to non-teaching staff across the Federal universities in Nigeria.

    “An understanding was reached with the Federal Government that the N23 billion earmarked for Earned Allowances was for the payment of the second tranche of arrears of Earned Allowances for both teaching and non-teaching staff in the university system.

    “As people of honour and considering that a document was signed to that effect, we had no reason to doubt the authenticity of their written commitment. Unfortunately, however, events have proven that we over-assumed the sense of honour of these government officials, particularly, Architect Sonny Echono, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, as the outcome of their actions proved contrary to the understanding that was reached with the government through them.

    “To our consternation and utter dismay, the N23 billion has clearly been shown to be a payment for the Academic Staff Union of Universities for their so called “Earned Academic Allowances”, while the three Non-teaching staff Unions were allocated a paltry N4.6 billion (11 per cent).

    “The allocation as presently done has many fundamental flaws. Firstly, it is unheard of that allocations from the Federal Government to institutions would be split from the ministry, according to unions and universities. The standard procedure has been to allocate funds to universities and not universities and unions within the universities. Extremely strange!”