The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured the general public that it is taking steps to avert an industrial action by the corporation’s arm of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) over N85bn pension deficit.
Workers under the two umbrella unions, PENGASSAN and NUPENG decided to shut down operations nationwide yesterday over the pension saga.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, explained that the National Pension Commission (NPC) had given a 12-month widow for NNPC to comply with the Pension Reform Act 2014 as amended.
Alegbe explained that since the commencement of the scheme in 2006, the management and its staff have made a lot of sacrifice to maintain the existing scheme, adding that any premature cancellation of the scheme may lead to avoidable labour disaffection across board.
While acknowledging the existence of some funding gaps in the scheme, he maintained that the corporation has put in place measures to steadily bridge the funding deficit, which stood at N298 billion in 2010 and has now been provisionally reduced to N85 billion as at June 2014.
However, PENGASSAN in a statement by its Media and Communication Officer, Mr. Babatunde Oke, said there was total shutdown at all NNPC offices and locations all over the country as at yesterday.
The strike, according to Oke, also affected all the subsidiaries of NNPC, including the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) and Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), NETCO, Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), Hyson, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
Oke maintained that the strike will continue until there is concrete commitment from NNPC management to find a lasting solution to the issues.
The demands of the workers, he said, are adequate and regular funding of the closed pension system, immediate steps to carry out turn around maintenance (TAM) on the four refineries as agreed between government, NUPENG and PENGASSAN and restoration of crude supply to the refineries.
Oke said the issue has gone beyond granting of a one-year grace to the NNPC by PenCom but that NNPC management should put in place machinery that will automatically fund the pension system without any bureaucratic bottleneck.
He noted that the funding has been delayed due to the inability of the board of NNPC to meet for over a year to approve the proposal of the management for the funding of the pension system.
On the issue of TAM of the refineries, the PENGASSAN spokesperson said the Federal Government should implement without delay the Memorandum of Understanding between it and the unions to carry out the TAM on the refineries, given that it had promised to commence the TAM in April but that even in September, there seems to be no commitment from the government on this. – The Sun.
