Oil workers begin strike today

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria will start a strike today (Tuesday) in view of the retraction of the shut benefits framework for the specialists by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Aside scratching off the plan, the unions likewise asserted that the administration of the NNPC had additionally declined to store commitments to the plan, which they said remained the specialists' legacy annuity plan.

The worker's organizations had on Friday given the NNPC a final offer to address their worries, which slipped by midnight on Monday.

Reacting to enquiries from our reporter, the representative for PENGASSAN, Mr. Babatunde Oke, said in a SMS, "The issue in question is the crossing out of the NNPC shut benefits framework focused around the refusal of the administration to reserve it.

"The due date was issued on Friday and lapses today (Monday). It is a shutdown by the NNPC extensions (of PENGASSAN) across the country as from 0.01am. The due date is 12 midnight. The gathering with the administration of the company is halted; in this way, the strike starts at midnight."

Oke focused on that the requests of the unions were: support of the benefits plan and its sufficient financing; the turn-around upkeep of the refineries; and rebuilding of rough supply to the refineries.

The Chairman, NUPENG, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, told our reporter on the phone that it was high time the legislature took care of the benefits plot in the NNPC, as both the lesser and senior parts of the concerned work associations were excited about leaving on the strike.

He focused on the requirement for the administration to captivate the laborers in a serious dialog the extent that the matter was concerned.

"Prior to our current annuity plan might be moved to any new stage, there ought to be clear arrangement. Overall, the activity ought to be switched," Korodo said.

As of the time of going to press, the NNPC had yet to react to the grumblings of the unions. Our journalist, be that as it may, accumulated that the enterprise was assembling its official position on the matter.

The administration of the NNPC, then again, guaranteed parts of staff and the overall population that it was making moves to turn away the approaching mechanical activity by the enterprise's arm of NUPENG and PENGASSAN.

It said in an announcement that the National Pension Commission had given a 12-month window for it to follow the Pension Reform Act, 2014 as altered.

Pencom had prior steered the NNPC to "promptly make all essential moves to travel to the Contributory Pension Scheme under the PRA."

In a new mandate dated September 15, 2014, Pencom expressed, "to oblige your worries, the bonus thus concedes the NNPC a move time of 12 months inside which to guarantee full agreeability with the procurements of the PRA 2014."