PENGASSAN and NUPENG to Embark on Strike

Senior oil workers under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Gas (NUPENG) have said they will withdraw their services nationwide effective from Monday August 17, 2020, if the federal government failed to pay their salaries.

This was made known on Thursday by the oil workers who gathered at the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun.

On Wednesday, PENGASSAN members embarked on a three-day warning strike protesting against non-payment of their salaries for the past three months, also to kick against government decision to include its members in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

On Thursday, PENGASSAN, approached the minister of labour and productivity, Chris Ngige, to table its grievances and other concerns of the union regarding the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.

In a note signed by the General Secretary, PENGASSAN, Lumumba Okugbawa, and addressed to Ngige, the association demanded that five agencies of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources should be excluded from IPPIS.

The agencies listed include the Department of Petroleum Resources, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, the Petroleum Training Institute, and the Petroleum Equalisation Fund.

The union said, “DPR, PPPRA and the other agencies under the FMPR superintend the entire spectrum of the Nigerian oil and gas industry and by implication maintains physical presence in all oil and gas as installations and services.

“This tie their terms and conditions to the dynamic and complex operations of the oil and gas industry. The DPR operates the same conditions of service with NNPC and run same laudable and robust payroll system. The parameters of this payroll system would not fit into the IPPIS template.”

Addressing the senior oil workers, the Vice-Chairman, Warri Zonal Council of PENGASSAN and Secretary of Regulators Forum, Prince Audu Oshiokhamele, said that “if the salaries are not released by Friday, then all oil operations will be shut down by midnight of Sunday”.

Oshiokhamele said, “We are surprised that the Ministry of Finance, on Wednesday, denied that they are not aware that our salaries have been stopped, while they are making every effort to see how they can placate the union.”