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The Joint Executive Council (JEC) of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) as well as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has fixed Wednesday, June 16 to embark on an industrial action against Chevron Nigeria limited (CNL).
The union,NUPENGASSAN said that the planned strike was rescheduled to the new date because of the Democracy Day holiday on Monday, June 14 as well as the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment’s scheduled meeting for Tuesday June 15 to address the issues raised by the body.
It noted that the strike will commence as scheduled unless CNL management signs a communique or agreement with the unions by tomorrow.
The joint union said a ruling by the ministry is not sufficient to stop the strike from going ahead on Wednesday as planned because the CNL management had not respected previous decisions of the ministry.
The joint union noted that it expected the communique to be signed to resolve all the pending issues and not a case of alleged cherry-picking as is the custom of management.
Among the issues tabled by the labour unions are the recent arbitrary and unlawful disengagement of three Nigerian workers: Bukola Sola-Adebawo, James Ukachukwu and John Ayeni and what it said is the legal deductions of workers’ benefits since 2012 and failure to refund excess deductions in terminal benefits.
The labour unions further stated that the 2018 annual vacation not taken and vacation allowance for contract employees rolled over to new contracts, including those personnel that were optimised from service since June 2019 should be paid.
According to the aggrieved workers, the refusal to negotiate collective bargaining agreements for manpower contracts’ employees and new contract as well as refusal to onboard contract workers in staff buses also formed part of the pending issues.
NUPENGASSAN stated that the failure to open redundancy discussions for affected contract employees since May 2020 and the payment of 2.5 per cent salary arrears for 2019 optimised staff and Elper Oilfield Engineering Nig. Ltd. 2013 EOC are still outstanding issues yet to be resolved.
Besides, it listed the alleged victimisation of Ykish and Muyideen manpower contract personnel for joining the union and apprehension that IEME contracts are to be closed out in March 2021 without following due process or engaging the unions to reach agreement as reasons the union is aggrieved.
“In view of the adjustment in the commencement date of strike, all members are hereby directed to be on red alert on Monday and Tuesday June 14 and 15.All members working in the field, offices or from home are to put on red shirts or red hand bands where red coveralls are not readily available, especially for those in the fields,” NUPENGASSAN said
But a statement by its General Manager (Policy, Government and Public Affairs), Esimaje Brikinn, while acknowledging the notice, denied complicity in the decision of its third party contractors to disengage the affected workers.
He said: “Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), operator of the joint venture between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and CNL (NNPC/CNL JV), confirms that, it has received a notice of threat to embark on industrial action (Notice) jointly signed by officials of the CNL Branch of The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN). The Notice is in respect of some alleged unresolved industrial relations issues, including termination of employment of some employees of independent, third party contractors by their employers”
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