The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Dangote Refinery's conciliation talks with the federal government resumed at 2 p.m. Tuesday following Monday’s deadlock.
Union leaders say the mass dismissal of more than 800 Nigerian workers violates Nigeria’s Constitution and labour laws. “Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution guarantees freedom of association and the right to belong to a trade union,” PENGASSAN General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa explained to Nigeria Info.
“In Section 26 of the Labour Act, if you want to sack anybody, there are procedures you have to go through. You must contact the union and tell them the reasons why. Before you release anybody from the oil and gas industry, you must report to the DPR to get permission.”
PENGASSAN recounted that after a September 8 meeting with the Minister of Labour and the Department of State Services (DSS), Dangote Refinery was told to finalise unionisation within two weeks. “They filled the forms, got their names, and over 800 of them started to join. We followed the procedure by writing formally to Dangote Management that the union is in existence in the refinery,” Okugbawa said.
According to the union, Dangote officials even verified the names. “They went from office to office to verify and asked individuals, did you really join the union? They said yes. That same day… at 9:59 p.m., a letter was given to all staff that their services were no longer needed,” the General Secretary stated.
PENGASSAN rejected the company’s claim that the workers were “saboteurs.” “We don’t know how 800 people will carry out sabotage,” he said. “They’ve been working there one or two years without incident. You cannot accuse a person on suspicion and fire that person on suspicion.”
PENGASSAN President Festus Osifo had earlier maintained that the strike would continue until the workers were reinstated. “Our position is clear: if you reinstate them now, we will call off our action now,” he said.
The federal government has warned of the strike’s economic toll, with Finance Minister Wale Edun noting that “we need gas flowing, we need crude flowing as inputs into production. We do not want the current momentum of growth to be broken.”
Labour Minister Muhammad Dingyadi has appealed for calm, saying progress had been made but the issues of reinstatement and unionisation remain unresolved.
