Jump to main content
IndustriALL logotype
Article placeholder image

PENGASSAN Halts ExxonMobil Strike in Nigeria for Talks

Read this article in:

13 December, 2010

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), ICEM’s white-collar affiliate in Africa’s most populous country, halted a strike on 4 December against Mobil Producing Nigeria Ltd., a subsidiary of the American energy giant ExxonMobil, so that negotiations over breaches to a collective agreement could begin.

The strike was conducted by the Mobil Producing Nigeria Branch of PENGASSAN over the energy company’s sudden and unilateral sacking of 84 Nigerian workers. The union blocked entry at the company’s administrative offices in Eket in Akwa Ibom State, as well as at other Mobil Producing facilities in Lagos and Port Harcourt.

The strike began on 30 November and was called off on 4 December when Mobil decided to discuss the issue, stating that it would return the workers to their jobs.

The company, the operating partner in a joint venture with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corp., dismissed 66 offshore workers and 18 office employees employed by various contractors. Under the collective agreement, the workers are covered by provisions of the agreement.

By late last week, negotiations did prove that Mobil had violated the contract, both in terms of failing to meet and discuss the layoffs with PENGASSAN prior to the sackings and failing to establish redundancy pay with the union.

The union and company agreed to establish a working group to calculate the exact remuneration owed dismissed workers but Mobil has not returned Nigerian nationals to their rightful jobs.

PENGASSAN has constantly had to defend its collective agreements is the rapid escalation of casualisation in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, with Mobil Producing consistently being one of the worst violators.