Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, has waded into the labour impasse between ExxonMobil Nigeria and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) representatives over the lay-off of about 150 staff of the organisation.
According to Francis Olabode Johnson, president of PENGASSAN, the minister has asked both parties to hold off on plans regarding the affected workers until he meets with them Wednesday.
On December 16, oil workers shut down the Lagos headquarters of the American oil giant protesting the laying off of their colleagues.
Sources tell BusinessDay that the company offered staff who were laid off between N140 million and N300 million as severance packages.
But PENGASSAN believes the decision will have debilitating impact on affected workers, even as they say the move was sudden in the midst of negotiations where they are pushing for workers to voluntarily retire.
“Suddenly this week the management began an involuntary redundancy exercise sacking workers whether they want to leave or not, thus repudiating our agreement with them,” Lumumba Okugbawa, the union’s acting general secretary, said on Friday.
However, sources knowledgeable about the deal say negotiations with the oil workers have been ongoing since the past three weeks.
The American oil giant has been fighting a bruising battle to keep costs down as revenue dipped by almost three quarters due to militancy and low oil prices, forcing carry out a right-sizing that has seen cut of almost 40 percent of its expatriate staff and several local staff and vendors.
Oil and gas companies in Nigeria have had a difficult year seeing profits erode by as much 70 percent due to slump in crude oil prices and upsurge of militancy in the Niger Delta
ExxonMobil suffered a major production outage on its Qua Iboe terminal in Eket, in July this year, and declared a force majeure due to what it attributed to ‘system anomaly’ that led to the shut-in of 400,000 barrels per day capacity.
A militant group, Niger Delta Avengers claimed responsibility for attacks on the company’s infrastructure.
Some of the resultant effects on their business have included scaled down operations, reduced personnel, uplift project deferments and contract renegotiations.
Against this backdrop, the company had take steps to ensure survival leading to invoking its redundancy program that affected lower performing staff to guarantee its survival.
