The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has said that it will press on with efforts to protect the rights of oil sector workers following the recent layoffs at Dangote Refinery.
The union said it gave the Federal Government benefit of the doubt as the middleman in its dispute with the Dangote Refinery, before calling off the nationwide strike.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday, PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, stressed that the union’s core goal was to safeguard the lives and rights of affected families.
He noted that PENGASSAN still has the “tools of negotiation, the tools of discussion, and the tools to take it to the maximum level” should government interventions fail to deliver fair outcomes to its members.
According to him, the union received promises from high-level government interlocutors, adding that authorities would “force the system to do what is right” in settling the dispute.
Osifo said that at the moment, PENGASSAN will monitor implementation closely, adding that it remained sceptical of Dangote’s willingness to honour the meeting’s resolutions.
“Do we have our suspicion? The answer is yes. Do we truly believe that he is going to do what is right? The answer is no, because they have a serial history of breaking agreements,” Osifo said, warning that the union will act if workers are shortchanged.
The union’s stance followed a communique by the Ministry of Labour aimed at settling the standoff between Dangote and PENGASSAN. Osifo said the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Association has resolved to give the government time to enforce the assurances, but that the union will not hesitate to escalate if there is no meaningful redress.
“It is not about PENGASSAN; it is about the workers, the Nigerians, that were abruptly terminated because they were exercising their freedom of association,” he said, adding that the union places the welfare of affected families first.
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Osifo concluded that PENGASSAN remains ready for negotiations but will use “every available instrument” to protect members should talks collapse.
“Pengassan has been around before Dangote Industries were founded we have been around for close to 50 years now, so for us, we are not perturbed in any way if it was a deceit, we are still here our tools are still available, our tools of negotiation, our tools of discussion, and our tools to take it to the maximum level,” he said.
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