Nigeria: Govt Threatens Sanction Against Labour Recruiters in Oil Sector

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): The Federal Government has threatened to withdraw the licence of labour contractors that engage in anti-labour practices.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, who disclosed this when hosting the newly elected members of the National Administrative Council (NAC) of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) in Abuja, disclosed that the Ministry is working on reforming the process of granting and renewing recruiters license to labour contractors with the aim of ensuring adherence to expatriate quotas and eschew unfair labour practices.

This comes as at the oil workers under the auspices of NUPENGASSAN have declared that they can no longer guarantee industrial harmony in the sector if government fail to curb the abuses of workers' rights by oil companies and labour recruiters.

At the end of their joint National Administrative Council (NAC) and National Executive Council (NEC) meeting under the umbrella of NUPENGASSAN, both NUPENG and PENGASSAN condemned the increasing impunities and anti labour tendencies of most indigenous and multinational oil companies in the oil and gas industry operating in the country.

The President of PENGASSAN and Chairman of NUPENGASSAN, Olabode Johnson, regretted that the situation was compounded by the inability of the Federal Government to frontally address the situation with the Ministry of labour showing helplessness.

Olabode said: "The situation was compounded by the fact that the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment that is supposed to be the watchdog in the areas of compliance with extant labour laws is unfortunately handicapped because of poor understanding of the contract processing and workings in the oil and gas industry."

He urged the Federal Government to establish a special body to mediate on the issues.

"The Council in Session demands that a special mediation unit comprising experts from NNPC Human Resources, NAPIMS and other relevant units be set up to apprehend industrial relations/labour disputes and treat them with despatch before escalating to level of any form of Industrial actions," he added.

Courtesy: www.allafrica.com