Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has accused federal Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Interior of disregarding established regulations in granting approximately 11,000 Indians expatriate status for employment at Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited.
President of the union, Festus Osifo, who leveled the accusation in Abuja while speaking on the alleged taking over of jobs meant for Nigerians, also threatened withdrawal of services by PENGASSAN members if Indians working in Sterling Oil and Exploration were not returned to their country.
He said: “If all our efforts fail to produce the desired result, PENGASSAN will not hesitate to call its members out on a full-scale strike. We have been on this issue for a few years now with government agencies not doing anything about it. Is the government not supposed to take action?
“The government will have to choose whether to be on the side of the Nigerian people or take the side of Indians. We have Indians doing domestic work such as cooks and security guards in this country. Which other country in the world accepts that? We are crying of unemployment, but our government officials are granting expatriate quotas to Indians to take up jobs that are meant for Nigerians as expressly stated in the Nigeria Local Content law.”
Osifo, who faulted the federal Ministry of Internal Affairs for meddling in expatriate quotas meant to be administered by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), said Sterling Oil sacked 18 of its members working for it in 2017 after it prevented the workers from participating in union activities.
Apart from demanding the deportation of the 11,000 Indians, PENGASSAN also urged the Federal Government to compel Sterling to re-absorb the sacked workers and allow Nigerians working in Sterling Oil to participate in union activities.
With the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and NCDMB promising to intervene in the imbroglio, PENGASSAN insisted that only on-the-spot visitation to the sites where Sterling Oil operates in Nigeria would reveal the true situation of things and therefore, rejected setting up of a committee that will seat Infinitum.
PENGASSAN’s boss insisted that where the entire operations in Sterling Oil are manned by Indians with most of them holding secondary school certificates was not acceptable to the union.
Osifo accused Sterling Oil of not having Nigerians in its senior management cadre, adding: “Jobs such as welders, vulcanisers, gate and security jobs, cooks, communication and panel operators are all carried out by Indians.” (Guardian)
