Oscarline Onwuemenyi
01 July 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has threatened to down tools nationwide without notice over unresolved payment of backlog of salaries and entitlements of workers in Tecon Oil Services and Seawolf Drilling Services in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
In a statement signed by its President, Comrade Igwe Achese, and obtained by our correspondent, the union pleaded with government and other relevant agencies to prevail on the two oil firms to pay the workers their benefits immediately saying it was disappointed that the interventions of agencies such as the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, yielded no result.
“The union is, therefore, issuing a notice to withdraw its services any moment from now in solidarity with the affected workers if the unresolved payment of salaries and entitlements of these workers are not settled,” the statement read.
It added that, “NUPENG wants to state that earlier ultimatum issued to the companies on these issues had long expired without the payment of the entitlements and government interventions had remained inconclusive. We will therefore, without further notice, shut down in solidarity with the workers as all efforts at mediation had failed.
“NUPENG is disappointed that despite the interventions of some government agencies such as the Department of State Service, DSS, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, nothing has come out.
“NUPENG has therefore, put its members in the Petroleum Tanker Drivers, PTD and Petrol Station Workers on alert to withdraw its members from their work places as soon as they get directive from the National Secretariat of the Union to commence action.”
The statement further noted that, “It must be pointed out that the Management of Tecon Oil Services reneged on the communiqué with the Union on off-loading the severance benefits of our members working in the company. Rather the company resorted to intimidating and cajoling the workers and in the midst of all these, the Chairperson’s appointment was terminated.
“As for Seawolf workers, it has been a tale of woes for over five years, as their salaries and terminal benefits have not been paid since the taking over of the Company by Assets Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON.”
