There is tension in the Dangote refinery over Fresh plans by the management of the refinery to redeploy some of engineers allegedly sympathetic to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria,(PENGASSAN) cause to the sister companies.
Although Dangote refinery is said to be bent on carrying out the exercise for what it regards as the possibility of sabotage by the staff that allegedly joined the strike, the staff are alleging vindictiveness over their action which they claimed was justified due to alleged poor condition of service
Some of the ePetroleumwho have been out of job since the incident for allegedly joining the strike have decried the plan to redeploy them to sugar, cement and other business units under the Dangote Group.
The workers, who spoke with The PUNCH anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the company was victimising them for unionisation.
However, the Dangote media team debunked these claims on Wednesday, saying there are PENGASSAN members still working in the refinery.
PENGASSAN shut down oil and gas facilities between Sunday and Tuesday last week over allegations that 800 refinery workers were fired for volunteering to be members of the union.
But the Dangote refinery said it only sacked a few workers who were sabotaging the facility, tagging it reorganisation.
Oil and gas workers went on strike in defence of their colleagues, causing the nation losses in oil and gas production as well as a drop in power generation.
The intervention of the Federal Government restored peace as the Dangote Group was asked to redeploy the sacked workers.
Speaking with Punch, the workers said they have yet to be recalled or redeployed as of Tuesday.
Sources within the Dangote Group told metrobusinessnews.com (MBN) that the company was ready to redeploy the engineers to its sugar and cement plants.
It was learnt that the company would also recruit new engineers to replace the redeployed ones, and the redeployment would be a huge loss to the company.
It was further gathered that some of the 800 workers could be deployed to units within the group’s operations outside the country.
But the affected workers said they were not pleased with the development.
According to them, their appointment letters showed that they were specifically employed by the refinery and not the Dangote Group, saying being transferred out of the company that employed them would be unfair to them, and wondering how a petrochemical engineer would cope at a sugar plant.
“It is victimisation. How will you redeploy us from the refinery to sugar or cement plants? It is not fair. Most of us weren’t employed by the Dangote Group; we were employed by Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals. If we were employed by the Dangote Group, we would know that we could be redeployed from one unit to another. This is like victimising us. Some of us are petrochemical engineers; how do you want them to cope? It is affecting some of us psychologically,” they said.
The engineers disclosed that they have been sitting at home since September 25, after the company issued a letter to sack all staff, though the company said it sacked a few workers for sabotage.
According to the engineers, 800 of them were asked to stay away pending when they would be redeployed. They recalled that previous attempts to access the refinery were rebuffed by security agents at the gate.
“Currently we are at home; we are not allowed to go into the refinery. The management said they would get back to us as far as the redeployments are done, but we have not heard anything so far. There were times when we tried to enter the refinery, but we were sent back. There are pictures of those incidents,” they said.
It was stated that Indian nationals were the only ones operating the refinery at the moment, as all Nigerian engineers were sent away for joining the union.
“At the moment, only Indians are running the refinery. All Nigerian engineers were sacked because we joined PENGASSAN,“ they alleged.
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The refinery had earlier dismissed this allegation, saying, “Over 3,000 Nigerians continue to work actively in our petroleum refinery at present. Only a very small number of staff were affected, as we continue to recruit Nigerian talent through our various graduate trainee programmes and experienced hire recruitment process.”
Speaking further, the workers explained that they wouldn’t have joined PENGASSAN if they were well paid. They clarified that the decision to join PENGASSAN came after the Dangote management announced that workers were free to unionise.
“We wouldn’t have joined PENGASSAN if we were well paid. Our salary is around N400,000, and after deductions, it falls below that.
“We didn’t plan to join PENGASSAN; the management announced it themselves that workers were free to unionise. We joined PENGASSAN, and it became an issue,” they expressed worries.
On allegations of sabotage, the engineers declared their love for the $20bn refinery, saying they would never sabotage a facility they helped build.
“We cannot sabotage the refinery. We love the refinery. Some of us built it from the beginning. How can we sabotage what we built? It is not possible. We’ve been very committed, and we were doing everything to ensure the success of the plant for the good of all Nigerians.
“As it is, we are all waiting for our posting letters. There’s nothing we can do now because the issue has become a national issue. The presidency is now involved. But we are not guilty of anything. Our only ‘crime’ is that we joined PENGASSAN,” the engineers submitted.
MBN further gathered that the situation is rwnsed as some of the staff presently at work are allegedly sympathetic to the plight of their colleagues as they say, ‘ an injury to one is an injury to all’.
