The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has demanded the immediate re-absorption of 18 members of the union who were laid off for protesting what they termed as unfair labour practices within the oil and gas industry.
PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, gave the directive yesterday, in Abuja, where he lamented that the unionists were laid off since 2017 for championing protest against Sterling Oil and Gas Company, which allegedly engaged over 11,000 expatriates to do jobs meant for Nigerians, reports Daily Independent.
Osifo accused the federal government of compromising the local content laws in the oil and gas industry, demanding that the firm in question return the expatriates to their home countries and engage Nigerians who are desperately seeking jobs.
Osifo, who doubles as President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), said Sterling must comply with Nigerian laws which stipulates the number of expatriates to employ in the sector.
“PENGASSAN met recently and resolved to make Sterling comply with our laws. Sterling cannot be bigger than Nigeria. We have said last week that we have over 11,000 Indians working in Sterling.
These are jobs that Nigerians should be doing. “Why are Nigeria’s institutions not acting, why is govt allowing Indian companies do whatever they like in Nigeria, something they cannot do in their country?
“As at today, the India to Nigeria ratio in terms of employment is less than five percent. A situation where you have the entire operations manned by Indians is uncalled for. In a country where most of the graduates are without jobs,” Osifo stated.
The PENGASSAN leadership said it may settle for a nationwide industrial action, if the management of Sterling Oil and Gas Company fails to meet its demands regarding the alleged unfair labour practices and exclusion of Nigerian workers from key operational roles.
Osifo revealed that the union had already taken decisive action by withdrawing its members from the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) at Sterling Oil’s loading terminal, effectively halting operations.
“There is no loading happening at Sterling Oil’s terminal as we speak. They reached out last night, asking us to de-escalate so we could meet next week, but we refused.
This action will continue until we have that meeting,” he said. “We demand a review of the employment structure at Sterling Oil, particularly regarding the ratio of Nigerian to expatriate workers in critical operations.
“They must tell us how many Nigerians are panel operators, how many are in core operations, and how many expatriates are employed.
We will compare this data with the employment templates from other international oil companies (IOCs) such as TotalEnergies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell,” he stated.
