PENGASSAN Urges FG To Implement Tripartite Pact

The leadership of
Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), has urged the Federal Government to urgently implement the tripartite agreement reached with the union or face industrial action.
In a letter from the Acting General Secretary of the Union, Comrade Lumumba Ighotemu Okugbawa, on behalf of the union’s leadership to the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, a copy of which was made available to The Tide, the union urged the government to enforce the implementation of the agreement reached among the tripartite partners.
The union’s letter was dated August 22, 2016 and copied Director General of the Department of State Security (DSS), the General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The union said that the agreement was reached at the end of the conciliation meetings held among the officials of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), PENGASSAN leaders and other key stakeholders in the month of July 2016 at the instance of the Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity.
PENGASSAN’s letter said that since the agreement was signed, there had been no much progress or commitment towards the Federal Government implementing the tenets of the agreement reached.
The union’s letter stated “it is over a month now since the last communiqué was reached and we can say in summating that no much progress has been achieved. This of course is making our members restive and we are under tremendous pressure to bring about a total resolution on all the contending issues.
“We are constrained, therefore, to note with great dismay that most of the companies are foot-dragging and have resorted to time wasting tactics in order to deliberately frustrate the process”.
The letter continues, “we are therefore, based on the above requesting that you use your good offices to intervene by calling on the management of the companies to quickly implement these resolutions as it affects them, else we will be left with no alternative than to succumb to the pressure from our members and do what needs to be done in furtherance of our mandate”.
The union expressed dismay at the disobedience of the Federal Government’s directive by the management of these companies.
The union’s letter listed the defaulting companies to include Mobil Producing Nigeria contract staff forum, Figro Nigeria Limited, Frontier Oil Limited, Pan Ocean, Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited, Baker Hughes, CISCON, Petrostuff Nigeria, Tecom and Universal Energy Resources Limited, among others.
The union therefore threatened to resume its suspended strike if the Federal Government fails.

Philip Okparaji