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11 December, 2006
Nigeria’s two oil workers’ unions, ICEM affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN, last week condemned the management of state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) for the unilateral and irregular dismissal of 3,000 staff, the majority of whom are members of the blue-collar and white-collar unions.
In a statement, PENGASSAN General Secretary Bago Olowoshile blasted senior management of the company for failing to engage in a dialogue with the unions and breaching proper protocol by excluding members of the unions’ NNPC Group Executive Council in redundancy deliberations.
The two unions called the sackings “premature and ill-timed”, forcing “unplanned severance” on to the affected workers and their dependents. The sudden downsizing appears to be a furthering of reforms to NNPC and part of an overall privatisation process. NUPENGASSAN, the cooperative and effective aegis of the two labour unions, is insistent that management of NNPC and all Nigerian officials, especially those inside the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), be made to “put a human face” on all privatisation matters.
But the voice of public reason in Nigeria was critical and forthright on NNPC’s latest closed-door decision making.
“The failure of NNPC to involve the National Secretariat of the two Unions as the situation demands is nothing but a flagrant violation of our grievance and Trade Dispute processes and a serious attempt to provoke and incite the members of both NUPENG and PENGASSAN on this damning posture and its ripple effects on the entire oil and gas industry,” read the statement.
The two unions called for NNPC to live up to the specific language contained in the Disengagement Package as outlined in the 13 October 2005 collective agreement, which was signed by all parties.
In August, the two unions heavily criticised DPE and NNPC for failing to abide by transparent and common good practices in selling state asset Eleme Petro Chemical Ltd., a subsidiary of NNPC. The Nigerian state seriously undervalued the olefins refinery in Port Harcourt when it sold the polyethylene and polypropylene refinery to a Thailand-based investment start-up called Indorama.