By Lateef Taiwo
Workers of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) have come out in their large numbers to protest against it management over issues bothering on poor handling of their welfare.
Placards with different inscriptions like, ‘we say no to hostile policies, remit our pension deductions, our lives and welfare matters, no to super inflated contracts, stop the intimidation of staff were sigthed when the protesting workers stormed the office of NUPRC in Abuja.
Addressing journalists after the peaceful protest on Tuesday, branch chairman of the workers’ union, Okechukwu Anya said the workers deductions are not remitted to the pension fund administrators (PFAs).
He also alleged that the management refused to pay staff claims even after registering them as some of the offices operate without light.
“We have situations where staff going on official jobs use their own money to run the jobs, put in staff claims since last year and the management has refused to pay back those staff claims even after registering the claims.
“We also have situations where staff are sent on transfer for over four to five months, they go and sort themselves
“The peaceful protest shows that, we are unhappy, we are desperate, we are frustrated. We have engaged our management for so long on topical issues that affects the staff and all our complaints have all fallen on deaf ears”
Anya, who is the NUPRC branch of
PENGASSAN, noted that if the management didn’t honour their demands, the workers will be pulled out of the terminals in the next 24 hours.
He also said: “There are situations where staff are sent on transfer for over four five months, they go and sort themselves out with their own money and the practice is that they should be paid within one week, yet they have not been paid.
“We have a situation where our office at Port Harcourt has gone on for one month without light. This is unacceptable.
“It is not the standard for a company that prides itself as Africa’s leading regulator, yet we don’t have light in our office for more than a month. It is unacceptable and we are registering our disgust.
“Our Lagos office has been running for months without water. We are angry because our management have refused to provide conducive atmosphere in line with International Labour Organisation prescription for management to provide good working environment.
“The staff are the people going to terminals, going to offshore, doing their best regulating the oil and gas industry and bringing a lot of benefits to the country and to the government. We cannot be sidelined”
Anya said as an affiliate of Trade Union Congress, it has taken necessary steps but no solution, ” The good thing is that the president of TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo is also our PENGASSAN president. We have written an official letter to him and communicated our position. We believe this time we are doing our protest, they will here our position and see where we go from here.”
END.
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