The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called for the immediate sack and repatriation of over 10,000 Indian workers allegedly engaged in menial jobs meant for Nigerians at Sterling Oil Energy Exploration and Production Company.
The Union also demanded immediate recall of its 18 members and staff of Sterling Oil who were sacked for pioneering the struggle in 2018, immediate attention be given to all pending welfare issues and contract staff of the company be regularised and allowed to unionise.
National President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Festus Osifo who addressed newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, accused the Indian-owned oil company of denying job opportunities to many unemployed Nigerians by dubiously employing foreign workers in non-expatriate roles, which he noted was in gross violation of Nigeria’s expatriate quota regulations.
While explaining the dubious process through which Sterling Oil have been bringing in Indians to work at the company, Osifo noted that between 200 to 500 Indians come into Nigeria every Tuesday.
The PENGASSAN President who warned that the union would no longer tolerate the company’s continued disregard for labor laws and the displacement of Nigerian workers in their own country, insisted that Sterling Oil was not bigger than Nigeria.
Osifo warned that should the management of Sterling Oil and the relevant Nigerian authorities fail to act promptly, the union would not hesitate to cripple the economy by embarking on a nationwide industrial action.
He said: “We have observed consistently that over time that they have been bringing in all manner of people to work in Nigeria in contravention of our laws and in violation of our regulations.
“If other companies, the IOCs, the indigenous producers are all complying with our laws, they are all complying with our regulations, Sterling cannot be an exception, Sterling management cannot be bigger than Nigeria.
“As of today, we have over 10,000 Indians that are working in sterling. Majority of these people are doing middle and low level jobs that Nigerians should do. Today we have Nigerians littering the streets; these are the jobs that they should be doing but instead, we have Indians doing these jobs.
“Our demand is very clear; all expatriates that are doing Nigerian jobs must go. All of them must go back to their houses and Sterling Oil must bring Nigerians immediately to do that job. In other countries, they will even shut down your production totally until you do what is right.
“If government before now say they don’t know what is happening, we have brought it to the fore. The Minister of Interior has responded. NCDMB has responded, today, NUPRC are inviting us for a meeting today. Sterling must do what is right and we are dedicated, we believe in this struggle, and we will see it to the end.”
Osifo warned that should the management of Sterling Oil and the relevant Nigerian authorities fail to act promptly, the union would not hesitate to cripple the economy by embarking on a nationwide industrial action.
“If nothing is done, we will declare a national strike and remember, in the upstream operation of the oil and gas industry, those that are manning the operations, 90% of them are our members.
“By the time we withdraw our members from the upstream, the entire upstream will be grounded. So, the government should choose between standing with Nigerians, and enforcing Nigerian laws, or standing with Indians, or Sterling.
“We have evidence, we have facts regarding what they perpetrate, and what they do in Nigeria.
“It’s not our function to go out and look for people that is making them have audacity, It’s our function to push them to do what is right, It’s our responsibility to hold them accountable.”
