Oil workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), backed by its junior counterparts, have called on the National Assembly to include interests of the workers in the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) currently undergoing the process of passage by the legislators.
The union made the call in a memorandum submitted to the joint Senate Committee on PIGB at a public hearing on the bill in Abuja on Wednesday.
The oil workers based their memorandum on five major policy broad thrusts, which include transparency and accountability, fiscal terms, institutional framework (minister, regulator and commercial entities), refinery and other downstream activities, labour issues and membership of institutions, boards and committees.
“The position of NUPENG and PENGASSAN is that wherever matters concerning or connected with the workers such as remuneration, pension, welfare, transfer and deployment are mentioned, the unions (PENGASSAN and NUPENG) must be involved and collective bargaining agreements must be respected and clearly included in the law,” the two unions stated in the memorandum.
According to the unions in the memorandum titled “PENGASSAN’s position on the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill 2016,” the law will determine the future of the Nigerian oil and gas industry as well as the Nigerian workers.
The position read in part, “This is more so as the bill contains provisions about staff transfers from the NNPC and other impacted government agencies. The bill also plans to change the ownership structure of the government establishments in the petroleum sector, including asset sales and eventual divestment.
“Clearly, the PIGB is intended to privatise as much as is practicable government interest in the petroleum sector. This if not carefully handled will lead to serious labour issues.
“There are also additional challenges posed by repeals of existing laws as some of the acts establishing the government agencies except for Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) and Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) will be repealed by the PIGB.
“The position of the PENGASSAN and NUPENG is that staff of the NNPC and all other agencies that will be impacted by the PIGB must not lose their jobs or be allowed to be transferred on terms and condition of service that is less favourable than what they currently have under any guise.”
