Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has called on the Federal Government to stop Chevron and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) from extending the planned sack of 18,500 workers globally to Nigeria.
NUPENG in a statement by its President, Igwe Achese, insisted that the union was worried and concerned about the purported sack threat of about 18,500 workers, though, globally in Chevron and Shell, describing the planned sack as alarming.
It claimed the planned sack was a sack too many, as oil workers in Chevron Nigeria and Shell would be affected, as the two companies had adduced dwindling oil prices in the international market for the planned sack.
According to the statement, “NUPENG calls on the federal government to halt the threat of loss of jobs in Nigeria by these multinational companies and wonders why Chevron and Shell should engage in the impending sack, when they have fully divested from onshore oil fields.
“It will be morally unjustified for Chevron and Shell to retrench oil workers in Nigeria as they are carting away profits made from deep oil shores and joint venture gas projects.
“NUPENG condemns in its entirety the impending sack as it will not work with the current efforts of the Buhari administration to generate employment instead of job loses.
“it will amount to derailing the efforts of the government to provide jobs for Nigerians.”
The union said the oil giants should cut cost by employing Nigerians in positions “where expatriates hold sway and are paid ten times what Nigerians are getting”.
“NUPENG warns that it may be forced to embark on industrial action if the Federal Government, through the regulatory agency, NNPC fails to stop Chevron and Shell from sending oil workers in Nigeria to the unemployment market,” the statement added.
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