The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) on Thursday picketed the Victoria Island, Lagos office of Variant Energy Services over anti labour practices.
NUPENG Lagos Zonal Chairman, Tayo Aboyeji, said that the patience and understanding of the affected workers had been taken for granted by the company’s management.
Aboyeji accused the management of unlawfully terminating the employment of NUPENG members on Oct. 28, 2019 in very dubious manner.
He also said such act was in violation of provisions of the extant labour law and failure of the management to pay the terminal benefits of the affected workers.
“Indecent work conditions, nonpayment of severance package for workers whose jobs had been terminated, laden with flagrant and unprocedural behaviour will be justifiably resisted at all costs.
“The action of the management is somewhat provocative and an affront to the global best practices, decency and integrity in the oil and gas industry, ” Aboyeji said.
Also, the Vice Chairman, Lagos zone, NUPENG, Mr Rotimi Benjamin, said that the management was invited by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to dialogue, but refused to honour the invitation.
He said: “If he still fails to honour the invitation, we will make sure the Federal Government takes the proper action on him by going national.
“However, we are trying to be mature by staging a peaceful protest to draw the management’s attention to do the needful to prevent further actions by the union, ” Benjamin said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the aggrieved oil workers, who stormed the premises of Variant Energy, were chanting songs and holding placards.
Some of the placards had inscriptions like: “Enough is enough over master–slave dialectic’’; ’’ Workers are not slaves’’; ’’Pay us our terminal benefits’’; ’’Pay us our money’’ and “there shall be no peace for debtors’’.
Attempts to reach the management of the company through a telephone call proved abortive.
