Oil workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association which began an indefinite strike on Tuesday, citing inhumane treatment by the management of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, an agency of the Federal Government, have intensified the mobilization of their members and sensitization of the public over their plight.
The workers had earlier on Tuesday staged a protest and shut down the commission’s office in Lagos, while also vowing to shut down the agency’s offices nationwide
In a sign of things to come, oil workers amidst songs and chanting solidarity anthems shut down the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s office in Lagos on Tuesday.
The protest is said to be having the backing of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria national president, Osifo, who also doubles as the TUC president, Festus Osifo.
According to one of the protesters NUPRC offices nationwide have been shut down as the strike action will continue until their demands were met by the management.
He said, ‘’We have chosen to begin a nationwide strike today simply because our management has decided not to do the needful. They have decided to ignore the welfare of staff. Like we keep saying, these are politicians that have been imposed on us. They have taken the leadership of this organisation backwards.
“As you are aware, we used to be DPR, and from the advent of the PIA which split the DPR into two- NMDPRA and NUPRC, we are the upstream section of the sector; we monitor the IOCs and independent oil producers. The PIA clearly stated that we would not enjoy any employment conditions lower than what we used to enjoy as defunct DPR.’’
“But as we speak today, what we enjoy is less than what we used to have; and that is against the PIA. We should be at par with our counterparts in the oil and gas companies- the likes of Shell, Total, Agip, and Chevron.
“Of course, if I am the regulator monitoring these people, I should be able to get a better condition of service than they have. But right now, we are less paid, workers go for jobs and return without getting paid, and they keep bringing up policies and conditions of services that are completely inhumane and out of place. We are saying “No” to this,” he declared.
He further complained about lack of working tools, offices and non-payment of salaries and other benefits.
The worker added, “The national president, Mr Osifo has given us orders to shut down the offices, and this is just the Day One of the protest. We would continue like this until the yearnings of the staff are met.
“Each of our offices nationwide- in Gombe, Port Harcourt, Warri, Owerri, Lagos, and our Abuja headquarters have been shut down; and we won’t stop until every of our agitations are met by the top management staff.
“Our agitations are so numerous that we can’t exhaust them here. As we speak, we don’t have working tools to do our jobs. You can imagine coming to work and you don’t have a common laptop to do your job. We don’t even have sitting desks. Even the managers don’t have where to sit.
‘’And the government is spending so much money to see that we are paid, but the top management, commissioner and the chief executive are not doing what they are supposed to do to ensure that some of these things are provided for us.
In his reaction, Gbenga Komolafe, the Chief Executive, NUPRC, lashed out against the action of the workers, describing it as disruptive.
He stated that “the scope of the protests had all the trappings of a premeditated action which suggests that staff welfare may just have been a facade and not the major reason behind the action.”
The union in a letter sighted, raised issues relating to pension non-remittance, non-conducive work environment, insufficient working tools and staff medicals as concerns that should be addressed by the upstream regulator.
The letter, which was signed by the local PENGASSAN Chairman, Okechukwu Anya, also identified other issues of concern including the outstanding payments of 2023 upfront allowances, unpaid staff claims, unpaid staff on-call-allowance, and non-payment of outsource personnel.
The union stopped work activities in Abuja, as they closed the entrance of the headquarters, preventing the NUPRC boss and other senior management staff from gaining entry on Tuesday.
Komolafe said the shutdown of NUPRC offices by PENGASSAN came less than 24 hours after the management of the commission had, in a response to union’s letter delivered July 31, 2023, clearly addressed all the issues raised therein concerning staff welfare.
In response to their demands, which he personally signed, the NUPRC boss explained that obligations relating to claims made by the union had been fulfilled and efforts were already in place to achieve closure on the pending items.
He outlined the stages at which all the stated issues had been addressed to date, stressing that contrary to the claims that pension deductions from staff emoluments had not been remitted to the various PFAs in line with the Pension Reform Act 2014, the commission had fully settled all pension deductions.
“Evidence was attached to the response for the union’s attention and verification,” Komolafe stated.
After listing out all the interventions made by the NUPRC in addressing the concerns of the union, he said, “It was therefore surprising that in spite of all the steps taken and explanations made, the local chapter of the union staged a disruptive action at the entrance of the commission’s headquarters less than 24 hours after submission of its letter of concerns.”
He said some of the commentaries made by the arrowheads of the protests were extraneous to the issues contained in the union’s letter of concern to the management.
“It is worth mentioning that since the commission commenced strategic moves to sanitise the oil and gas industry in the country, especially with the passing of some regulations to curb oil theft and losses through operational and administrative leakages, the management has come under intense pressure and harassment from some dissatisfied stakeholders using every available weapon at their disposal,” Komolafe stated.