The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has suspended the 15-day ultimatum it earlier issued to federal government over unresolved labour issued due to the timely intervention by the government.
NUPENG in a statement signed by its president, Comrade Igwe Achese and Secretary General Comrade Joseph Ogbebor, said the suspension of the ultimatum which should have expired on Thursday February 15, 2018 was suspended due to the understanding reached after a meeting with federal government through the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The DSS resolved to host a meeting between the Managing Director of AMCON and NUPENG leadership on Wednesday to find a lasting solution to the lingering crisis of non-payment of terminal benefits and backlog of salaries to Seawolf Drilling Company workers that were laid-off over six years ago.
The DSS also resolved to convene a stakeholders meeting between the Union and the International Oil Companies (IOCS) over the unresolved labour issues. Based on the agreement reached at the meeting with the DSS, NUPENG resolved after an emergency meeting of the National Administrative Council (NAC) in Abuja to suspend the 15-day ultimatum issued the federal government in order to pave way for dialogue to settle the nagging problems.
The issues have remained unresolved despite NUPENG persistent calls on authorities to intervene and resolve them before they degenerate into unavoidable crisis situations. The unresolved labour issues include non-payment of severance benefits to workers in Seawolf Drilling Company by AMCON, Universal Energy Resources limited, Tecon Oil Services Limited.
Other unresolved labour issues are with Chevron and their labour contractors, Shell, Nigeria AGIP Company, Exxonmobil Producing Nigeria unlimited and termination of labour contract workers and others.
