PENGASSAN Threatens Agip with Strike Action

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (Pengassan), the umbrella body of senior Nigerian oil and gas workers, has threatened the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC) with strike action if it fails to obey a Port Harcourt high court order that status quo be maintained with regards to a face-off between it and members of the association working with Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company, a contracting firm working for NAOC.

The union, which also charged the  management of Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company Plc, General Electric (GE) and NAOC to pay the severance benefits of the union members in Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company, said NAOC was bent on disobeying the court order on the termination of a contract given to Arco by NAOC, which the later transferred to Plantgeria.

 “NAOC management is behaving as if it is above the law, and in this era when we are clamouring for the rule of law, the action of NAOC is tantamount to contempt of the court”, Pengassan said.

 The association explained that its members commenced a strike in response to a threat by NAOC to deny them access to the plant on May 28, 2015, but that on June 30, 2015, Justice Akanbi Lambo of the Federal High Court Port Harcourt ruled that a status quo be maintained pending the hearing in the case that was adjourned till October 26, 2015.

The Pengassan said it did not matter which company NAOC transferred the contract to, but that it should obey the court order pending the determination of the case. It said it would not tolerate a situation whereby its members were either be molested or locked out, pending the determination of the case.

“To our greatest surprise, instead for the management of NAOC to obey the court order and maintain the status quo , it made good its threat by ordering that Arco staff should hand over to Plantgeria and thereby denying our members access to the plant on July 7, 2015”, the association said. “

“While the strike lasted, issues arose in the OB/OB Gas Plant in Kwale, Delta State and the NAOC management approached the union to allow its members in Arco to fix the problem, which our members obliged with the staff of GE within the period of the strike. The managements of the three companies should pay our members' severance package and other entitlements. Since then, NAOC refused to sign our members' time sheet and refused to respect the court order, a position the union does not expect from an organization like NAOC”.