Kunle Kalejaye
18 December 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Current development from the ongoing Labour crisis between the management of ExxonMobil and PENGASSAN revealed that the 100 affected staff of ExxonMobil redundancy program are expected to received about N140 million each.
Findings by SweetcrudeReports on Friday and Saturday revealed that the affected employees are only about six percent of the company’s workforce, and were offered an enhanced benefits package in excess of the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed with the in-house Union.
Findings also revealed that post-employment support programs to support the affected workers’ transition period from the Company were also included in the package.
An internal memo obtained by our correspondent revealed that the company’s severance payments driven by years of service and additional redundancy gratuities are in some cases up to N350 million for an employee.
“For the total population affected, average payment per person hovers around N140 million.
“The pay package covered redundancy pay of about 36 months basic salary, Settling-in allowance of up to two months basic salary, additional pay to address economic realities of up to three months basic salary, and Notice pay of three months basic salary,” the memo stated.
However, when SweetrcudeReports contacted PENGASSAN ExxonMobil branch chairman, Mr. Paul Eboigbe said labour and the company are yet to reach an agreement on the issue.
“Labour and the management of the company had a round table discussion two weeks ago or there about and there was no finite agreement between the two parties.
“What we saw was the implementation of the company’s plan without taking the labour union along,” Eboigbe said.
Meanwhile, a source within company informed our correspondent on Friday that neither the Nigerian Labor Law nor the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Union requires alignment between the Company and the Union in the event of redundancy actions.
“The CBA (Clause 23b) states that ‘Whenever redundancy actions are contemplated, the Company shall inform the Association of the intended action and the Association may bring to the Company’s attention any problems that it believes are involved.’
“Similarly, the Nigerian Labor Act (Clause 20a) states that ‘In the event of redundancy, the employer shall inform the trade union or workers’ representative concerned of the reasons for and the extent of the anticipated redundancy,” he said.
The source added that despite this, the Company’s management engaged in discussions with the Union for over 3 weeks informing them about the extent of the anticipated action with a view to obtaining some understanding based on the challenges the Company has been facing.
“It is quite surprising that because the Union disagreed with the Company’s notification, they abandoned the provisions of their CBA which specifically states in Clause 13b that ‘If a dispute arises during the subsistence of the Agreement, either party shall comply with the current law governing Trade Disputes in Nigeria and neither party shall resort to arbitrary strike action or lockout,” he said.
It was also gathered that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu intervened by personally appealing to both the Union Chairman and Secretary, extending invitations for a meeting on December 20.
Contrary to claims of hiring expats to replace Nigerians, our sources explained that the company has actually demobilised 40 percent of its expats in the wake of the current challenges. According to him “we are at our lowest ever number of expats in-country.”
“This has been a particularly challenging year for the Oil and Gas industry in general and for Mobil Producing Nigeria, in particular.
The profitability of this ExxonMobil affiliate has been the worst in recent history. While costs are down, revenue is down by almost three quarter, even while the company has spent more than its earnings to see that its contractors and employees are paid.
“Some of the resultant effects on their business have included scaled down operations, reduced personnel, uplift project deferments and contract renegotiations,” the source said.
