By Victor Ahiuma-Young
WORRIED by  the increasing rate of unfair labour practices in the nation’s Petroleum industry and its  threat to industrial unrest, workers in the industry are threatening to declare industrial action to compel government and its agencies to address the menace.

Under the umbrella of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, the workers have petitioned the Minister of Petroleum Resources, urging him to address the issues to calm the restiveness in the sector and avoid avoidable industrial unrest in the sector.

In a petition by its General Secretary, Comrade Elijah Okougbo, the union listed some of such unfair practices as  casualization/contract staffing, outsourcing and refusal to allow workers to freely associate and unionise in accordance with Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution  and International Labour Organisation, ILO, Conventions 87 and 98 of 1948 and  49 respectively.

The union lamented that between 2001 and 2005, no fewer than six different agreements  were reached among stakeholders over the issue of casualisation and contract staffing to no avail .

NUPENG's General Secretary, Comrade Elijah Okougbo, Comrade Achese Igwe, President and Comrade Tokunbo Korodo, Chairman, Western Zone of NUPENG, at a briefing in Lagos.

The union  accused Shell Petroleum Producing and Development Company, SPDC, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited , Nigeria Agip Oil Company, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited as the main culprits.

According to the petition: “Casualisation and contract staffing have become a social phenomenon and a hydra – headed evil in labour relations in the Oil and gas Industry. What constitutes casualisation in the industry is the deliberate policy  of the multi-nationals and Oil Service companies, which created casual and labour contract workers in place of permanent  labour employment.

That is, the placement of workers as temporary employees on jobs that are routine, contentious and permanent in nature. In the oil and gas industry and in manufacturing companies, various nomenclatures have been used to describe the workers/casuals these includes: Labour Contract Workers Temporary Staff, Service Contract Workers, Direct Hire, Body Shop individual Consultancy fixed time Contract  Casuals, etc.  Whatever the nomenclature in use, the bottom line is that these workers are not on the principals’ payroll and are therefore paid pittance wages, hired and fired at will by the service providers.”

NUPENG  lamented that “multi-nationals and oil service companies in the industry, contract out/outsource very large portion of their workforce to unlicensed labour contractors to provide support services to the companies notwithstanding that the jobs are continuous, routine and permanent in nature and pay the contractors service handling charges or commission. The principal companies in most cases employ these categories of workers, supervise their conduct and determine their salaries but only transfer payment to the labour contractors.”

The union argued that the most worrisome shift in the casualisation policy of the companies in the industry now was the conversion of labour contracts to service contracts and their  fragmentation to very little contract tenures, which were reduced to short tenures to make the unionization drive impossible.

“Although we have made effort and have unionized the other categories of workers (Service Contract Workers, Direct Hire, Temporary Staff, Body Shop, Casuals etc.) by aggregating them in each of the companies as Service Contract Workers irrespective of the number of service providers, we have been having running, battles with the Service Contractors and their Principal companies for recognition and negotiation of Conditions of Service.

This group constitutes over 90% of the workforce of these oil companies. Another new dimension to the casualisation policy in the oil and gas industry is the resistance by some companies to unionization especially by NUPENG.”

“The principal companies now wish to influence the choice of industrial union, which will unionise their Service/Labour Contract Workers in the oil and gas industry. They are carrying out their evil plans by terminating the existing labour contracts some of which have run for over 20 years and re-awarding same to companies outside the oil and gas industry to create jurisdictional problems. NUPENG represent  the labour service contract workers in their operations,” the union decried.

Outsourcing

On outsourcing in the nation’s petroleum industry, NUPENG argued though it was a global phenomenon in employment relations and the world was now a global village, the method of outsourcing core jobs to contractors in order to trivialise workers’ job security and their conditions of service did not amount to internationally accepted best practices in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

According to the union: “Outsourced workers have been derided and humiliated in most cases. Some outsourced core jobs to contractors are made to last for two years and in such contracts, workers are made by contractors to sign yellow dog agreement which provides that the employee must not join the unionwhile in the service of the company.”

“Where they are unionized, their services are brought to an end either at the end of one year or two years. There are different names for outsourcing workers from their jobs viz:- Rightsizing, downsizing, rationalisation, redundancy or retrenchment. And outsourced jobs have different nomenclatures for instance Yellow dog, Direct hire, Service Contract, Labour Contract etc.”

All these terminologies will not put food on workers table if ILO Conventions on  decent jobs and equal pay for work of equal value are not respected. The Ministry of labour should endeavour to play the role of the supervisor in industrial relations instead of allowing slave labour to be the dominant factor in the oil and gas industry.”

The contract tenure approved by NAPIMS for contractors operating with multinationals in the oil and gas industry ranges from one to two years at the end of which contract staff’s appointments are either terminated abruptly and they are paid off with a pittance or asked to re-apply for the same job which has not changed in content.

non recognition of the union in some companies in the industry so that the pending Shell Petroleum Development Company issue and agitation from the Branch locales in the oil and gas industry will not precipitate a nation-wide strike action which may disrupt industrial peace and harmony. With good faith based on a win-win approach, we can all enthrone positive social conditions and a proactive labour-economic agenda in the world of work.