Two oil workers’ unions, on Saturday, in Lagos gave a two-week ultimatum to the federal government to prevail on Conoil to comply with its workers’ demands.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association Of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), said if nothing happened at the end of the ultimatum, they would embark on a nationwide strike.
The workers are accusing Conoil of non-implementation of the 2005 staff collective agreement and sack of 85 per cent of its workforce.
They also indicted the oil company for non-payment of salaries since August 2007, unethical distribution of redundancy letters and forcing members to collect sack letters.
The unions said they had already stopped their members from lifting oil for the company.
“It appears the embargo is not enough to make Conoil behave properly, and so we are taking it to a different level,” declared PENGASSAN president, Peter Esele, at a joint news conference.
He called on the secretary to the federal government as well as the ministers of Labour and Energy to intervene urgently to avert another industrial crisis.
“More importantly, the rights of workers as enshrined in the extant Labour Act, the ILO Conventions and the global best practices must be protected and respected,” Esele said.
He also asked Conoil to stop the intended re-organisation until “all outstanding issues are resolved and implemented”.
Oct72007