By Gbenga Adedayo
Aiteo Group Oil and Gas Company, along with Seplat Petroleum Development Plc, Forete Oil Plc, and NIPCO Plc have been lambasted by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) for unwholesome labour practices which it considered inimical to the welfare of workers.
PENGASSAN’s position was made known recently at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital recently. PENGASSAN disclosed that the management of these oil companies have deliberately refused to unionise their members or thwart all efforts aimed at bringing the workers under a unionized umbrella.
The umbrella body of oil workers therefore vowed to resist all further attempts by the management of these organisations to deprive the workers of their rights to associate, adding that these workers are Nigerians with legimate rights to unionise.
According to PENGASSAN President, Francis Olabode Johnson and General Secretary Lumumba Okugbawa, the these companies have no respect for mutually agreed and signed collective bargaining agreements enter into with the workers.
It accused the management of these oil companies of frustrating efforts at unionization by deploying recruitment policy aimed at hiring employees as casuals, contracts or outsourcing of onshore and offshore jobs so that these hires will not be registered as regular employees of the organisations.