PENGASSAN threatens strike over IPPIS

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has threatened to embark on strike should the Federal Government stop salaries of its members in government agencies as a result of the lack of adequate consideration to exempt them from enrolment into the Integrated Personnel Payroll System.
The affected agencies are the Department of Petroleum Resources, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the Nigeria Content Development Board, the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority and the Petroleum Training Institute.
The statement on possible recourse to industrial action was a rider based on the fears expressed by the in-house branch unions leaders to the reconciliatory meeting with stakeholders at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu.
PENGASSAN noted that in spite of its protest letters to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation against their enrolment into the IPPIS as a result of non-consideration of the peculiar situation in the petroleum industry, the OAGF still went ahead to issue an ultimatum to the agencies threatening to stop workers’ salaries.
In a letter dated April 22, 2014, PENGASSAN sought the intervention of the Minister over some issues of concerns.
At a meeting that lasted over eight hours, the union threatened to shut down all oil and gas installations in the country if the controversial payroll system was implemented in the oil and gas industry, arguing that the introduction of the IPPIS Scheme would compromise effectiveness and efficiency in the system.
PENGASSAN said: “The oil and gas industry thrives on performance evaluation and therefore introducing a system that is not based on actual and deliverables should be discouraged in a very sensitive industry as the oil and gas.”
Wogu called on the Department of IPPIS in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to engage the concerned agencies to identify and resolve the associated challenges, saying that once the process is on, workers’ salaries will not be stopped.
The union however warned that should the Head of Service of the Federation make good his threat to stop salaries of staff in the Petroleum Sector by the end of May 2014, PENGASSAN would mobilise its members to shut down all oil and gas installations and facilities across the nation without further notice.