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28 April, 2006
Nigerian ICEM affiliate PENGASSAN, the white-collar oil workers’ union, is bracing for a major dispute with ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Mobil Oil, in Lagos over a breach of a collective bargaining agreement.
Mobil Oil in Nigeria has refused to honour a procedural agreement with PENGASSAN. The agreement sets out housing allowances for 300 headquarters staffers in the capital city, as well as pension requirements. The company told the union it would pay one, but not the other. The company is refusing to honour pension entitlements allotted prior to Nigeria’s 2004 Pension Act.
The union gave Mobil Oil a 21-day ultimatum to make good on the entire procedural agreement, but that expired on 14 April with no movement from the company. PENGASSAN succeeded in getting the matter placed before Nigeria’s minister of Labour and a meeting of the parties is set for 3 May. If no solution is reached, industrial action is sure to come.
“Management has not shown the sincerity to have the matter resolved amicably,” stated PENGASSAN Acting President Peter Esele. “If industrial unrest is what they want, they better be prepared to face it.”
Another matter which finds the US-based supermajor at odds with PENGASSAN, is a planned relocation of company headquarters out of Nigeria. The union discovered that ExxonMobil is planning to close the Nigerian home office and shift downstream operations to Egypt, while upstream office work would go to Houston, Texas.
“We have a responsibility not just to our members, but also to the country,” said Esele. “You cannot have companies making so much money from the resources of our country, and then simply relocating. This is unacceptable to us as Nigerians.”