The leadership of the two organized labour in oil and gas industry, that is; Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria(PENGASSAN) and Nigeria Union of Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have entered into partnership to curb casualisation in the sector.
The collaboration, according to PENGASSAN president, Comrade Festus Osifo and NUPENG president, Comrade Williams Akporeha, is in apparent bid to tackle casualisation in oil and gas industry which have become national embarrassment that some workers in the oil and gas industry are going through modern slavery in the hands of some employers of labour in the sector.
The partnership became imperative following the inability of one union to address the issue that is becoming a menace to the sector.
The duo bemoaned the high rate of casualisation and the industry, adding that, both unions are working very hard to ensure that about 90 per cent of workers in the sector are unionised to fight for their collective bargaining agreement.
As part of plans to achieve this, Osifo and Akporeha explained that, the unions are having a workshop with critical stakeholders whereby they will come out with workable, lasting solutions and implementable backed with action plan on how they would further address the issue.
“This is a message of hope for workers that have not been enjoying the joy of working. The first step is to address casualisation in the industry is to through unionization of the workers that will give them sense of belonging. And this will make the task of advocating for such workers much easier. The goal of the unions is in line with accordance with International Labour Organizations (ILO).
“We aim to ensure all workers in the sector are unionized and bring the issue of casualisation to the barest minimum. We also recognize that even if you are contract staff, you are better off when you come under the umbrella of PENGASSAN and NUPENG.
“This means that your cases can be properly managed and your courses can be adequately championed. So, PENGASSAN and NUPENG are collaborating in that front to ensure that we reduce the issues of casualisation to the barest minimum,” they pointed out.
Reiterating the power of unionism, the unions noted that, bringing the workers into organised coverage will help to fast track their freedom and make efforts to prune casualisation in the industry an easy task.
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