FG Bows, Begs Oil Companies

The Federal Government has begged major oil marketers operating in the country against the retrenchment of workers in the oil and gas sector.

This appeal was made by  the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, on Tuesday, July 12 during a meeting with top officials of PENGASSAN, NUPENG and the international oil companies.

Ngige urged the oil companies not to declare redundancy and that it should be a last resort in the face of economic challenge.

He said: “Government will not say you should not declare redundancy; redundancy will always come if the economy is not doing well.

“That is why it is in the Labour Laws of every country; but what we are against is when this particular law is applied strictly as it is enshrined in the labour laws.

“Companies sometimes carry out redundancy immediately without discussion or without even informing the workers, this is very wrong.

“The redundancy law as stated in Section 20 of the Act defines redundancy as when you cannot carry on with the number of staff you have due to circumstances beyond your control.

“You must discuss with the workers or the workers representatives directly and you must show them why the situation is like that.

“This may include showing them the books of the company, explaining to them that the company is not doing well and then you all agree on the difference.

“There are other ways of preventing redundancy -that is by looking at the expatriate quota; you know what it costs keeping one expatriate in this country, so you can find a way of reducing them.

“Another way is that you can also look at the peaks of offices in the managerial and the management section and you can come down on it.

“These are some of the various ways we can use to maintain equilibrium in the employment of labour market in any country.

“When you push people into the labour market, they will join the army of unemployed persons and can constitute security nuisance.”

The meeting was meant to solve the issue raised by the leadership of PENGASSAN and NUPENG over the alleged mass sacking of its members by various oil and gas companies.