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15 November, 2010
The ICEM affiliated oil and gas workers’ trade union in Nigeria, the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) is calling on the Nigerian government to enforce existing labour law and stop companies from blocking collective bargaining agreements with their employees.
It is a practice far too common in Nigeria. Oil and gas companies negotiate collective agreements but refuse to implement the agreements. PENGASSAN will soon mobilise to disrupt operations at operations of the different companies if the government does not step in.
Specifically, the union’s call went to the Federal Ministries of Petroleum, Labour, and Productivity, as well as to the Ministry of the Interior, arguing that collective agreements will guarantee industrial stability in the oil and gas sectors.
PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun
PENGASSAN has identified two prominent oil and gas servicing companies, Baker Hughes Nigeria Ltd., and BJ Services, neither of which has a collective agreement of record. These will be the first target companies of the campaign.
Speaking on the issue, PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun said that the union will work together with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and will not tolerate any company without a CBA to operate in Nigeria.
“BJ Services lacks respect for Nigerian law, Nigerians, and the government, while Baker Hughes is operating without a union or a negotiated CBA,” said Ogun. “This turns Nigerian workers to slaves in our own country.
“No company will be allowed to work in our sector if workers do not have union representation and a negotiated CBA. Government, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC), and the multinational companies operating in our sectors must stop awarding contracts to these two companies, because we will not allow them to complete them,” said Ogun
As a member union of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), PENGASSAN was directly involved in the decision to call a three-day general strike last week, demanding the government of Goodluck Jonathan implement a new minimum monthly wage of N18,000 (€87 euros).
Organised labour accepted an offer from President Jonathan to postpone the strike on 10 November as the Minimum Wage Bill will go to the Nigerian National Assembly in the first week of December. Nigerian trade unions warned the President that if his promise to forward the bill to Parliament and then to ensure speedy passage is not fulfilled, he will face another general strike in December.