NUPENG Explains Persistence of Casualisation

The Port Harcourt Zonal President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Godwin Eruba has blamed the persistence in casusalisation, especially in the oil and gas industry on contract staffing and expatriate quota system.

Speaking in an interview with The Tide in his office in Port Harcourt recently, Eruba described casualisation and expatriate quota system as a twin evil that have undermined policy objectives in the oil industry.

He decried a situation were major multinational oil and gas exploration and production companies as well as some major servicing companies in the industry operate without direct junior staff.

According to him, these companies choose to outsource the employment of junior staff, which place them mostly on casual positions, giving unfettered window to foreigners to take over every available employment opportunities in the name of expatriate.

Eruba also described companies based in Nigeria as the worst culprits in anti-labour practices, stating that experience in negotiations by NUPENG had exposed Nigerian firms as very unpredictable in their implementation of good welfare packages for staff.

He advocated good legislation and effective policy implementation as the only way out of the quagmire.

He also called on government agencies such as the Department of Petroleum Resources  (DPR), to be serious and not compromise in its execution of good labour practices in the industry.

Beemene Taneh