NUPENG Cautions Oando On Takeover OF P/H Refinery
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has expressed worry over the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) entered into by the Federal Government and Oando Plc. to manage Port Harcourt Refinery under repair, operate and maintain (ROM) arrangement.
This was contained in a statement signed by the General Secretary, Comrade Joseph Ogbebor and made available Wednesday.
The Union stated that the arrangement is faulty, not transparent and did not involve the other stakeholders, especially the two oil workers unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN.
NUPENG cautions the Federal Government on the allege takeover bid by Oando, pointing out that it will resist it, if it leads to job losses.
It stressed that Oando PLC is not a worker-friendly organization as it detests unionization in all its subsidiaries and companies.
The Union reiterates that, it is not against the Federal Government’s reforms to overhaul the Oil and Gas sector, but it should not be to the detriment of the oil and gas workers.
It vowed to resist with full force the arrangement by Oando, if the oil workers who have put the refinery working with poor funding and obsolete equipment are thrown into the unemployment market by Oando.
NUPENG said that the change promised by the present administration is to generate more jobs and not kill jobs and that Oando is known for outsourcing and contracting jobs where such workers have no conditions of service and are not allowed to unionise.
It therefore called on the Federal Government to involve the two unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN in the arrangement before it is signed by the end of July, 2017, in order to avert a major industrial crisis in the Oil and Gas sector of the economy.
