The
Federal Government on Wednesday reached a truce with some major oil marketers to recall sacked workers.
This was outcome of a meeting involving Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, officials of Petroleum Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and representatives of some oil companies.
Ngige, in his remark, warned indigenous and international oil companies that Nigeria would not tolerate indiscriminate sack of workers, despite the economic situation.
The management of Universal Energy Ltd was alleged to have sacked 20 of the 22 NUPENG members in the company in preference to contract workers.
The unions also accused another company, FUGRO Nig. Ltd, of sacking its members and forcing them to sign severance letters and unilaterally terminating 25 members of staff out of which six are executive members of PENGASSAN and NUPENG.
They also claimed that Halliburton was planning to reduce its workforce.
Speaking after the parley, Ngige said: “After a long deliberation, we resolved all the contentious issues. FUGRO has to revert to status quo and open up discussions on the redundancy situation with the union. They have two weeks to report back to the ministry.
“Universal Energy also has to revert to status quo meaning that the retrenched staff members have to return to work. They are expected to open up a fresh redundancy talks to be monitored by the South-south zone of the Ministry of labour in Uyo and give us a feedback within two weeks.
