Tribune Oil workers end strike after 13-hour meeting 20.Dec.2014 Soji-Eze Fagbemi - Abuja After 13 hours of protracted negotiations with the Federal Government, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) suspended their nationwide strike early Friday morning. The meeting was called at the instance of the supervising Minister of Labour and Productivity, Alhaji Kabiru Turaki, who led the government team. It has the leadership of oil workers under the auspices of NUPENG and PENGASSAN, and other relevant stakeholders in the oil and gas industry in attendance. The meeting, held at the conference room of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, started at 5:00 p.m on Thursday and came to an end 6:00 a.m. on Friday. “In view of the foregoing understanding, it was agreed that no trade union official/member shall be victimised for his/her participation in the strike. Also, NUPENG and PENGASSAN suspend the ongoing strike in the industry,” the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed after the meeting said. To get the oil workers to suspend the strike, the meeting addressed all the issues contained in a communiqué dated October 31, 2014, which was jointly issued by NUPENG and PENGASSAN. On the issue of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the meeting noted the benefits associated with the bill but regretted the delay in its passage by the National Assembly. It was, therefore, agreed that the Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, NUPENG and PENGASSAN should meet on the issue to decide on the best productive line of action. The meeting noted that the guidelines on casualisation, contract staffing and outsourcing are still subsisting and the trade unions were advised to submit the names of companies defaulting from the guidelines. Besides, it was noted that the guidelines have been submitted to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation for gazetting as regulations; while the need to update the guidelines in view of the changing world of work was also identified by the meeting.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 18:48:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015