Engineers sacked by the Dangote refinery for allegedly joining the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have condemned the plan to redeploy them to sugar, cement, and other business units under the Dangote Group.
The staff, who spoke with The PUNCH anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter, claimed the company was victimizing them for unionization.
However, the Dangote media team denied this on Wednesday, stating that there are still PENGASSAN members 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 union members.
However, the Dangote refinery claimed that it only fired a few personnel who were destroying the plant, citing a reorganization.
Oil and gas workers went on strike in support of their colleagues, resulting in losses in oil and gas production as well as a decrease in electricity generation.
The Federal Government intervened to restore peace, asking the Dangote Group to redeploy the fired workers.
The workers told our correspondent that they had yet to be recalled or redeployed as of Tuesday.
Sources within the Dangote Group previously told our correspondent that the corporation was prepared to relocate the engineers to its sugar and cement plants.
It was learned that the corporation would also recruit new engineers to replace those who had been redeployed and that the redeployment would result in a significant loss for the company.
Our correspondent also learned that some of the 800 staffers may be deployed to units inside the group’s operations outside the nation.
However, the affected workers expressed dissatisfaction with the development.
According to them, their job documents indicated that they were explicitly engaged by the refinery rather than the Dangote Group, and that being relocated out of the company that recruited them would be unfair to them. They also wondered how a petrochemical engineer would cope at a sugar factory.
“It is victimization. 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 victimizing 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 revealed that they had been sitting at home since September 25, when the corporation issued a letter threatening to fire all employees, despite the fact that the company claimed it fired a few personnel due to sabotage.
According to the engineers, 800 of them were advised to stay away until they were redeployed. They recalled that prior efforts to enter the refinery had been denied by security guards 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.
According to reports, the refinery is currently operated solely by Indian nationals, as all Nigerian engineers have been deported for joining the union.
“At the moment, only Indians are running the refinery. All Nigerian engineers were sacked because we joined PENGASSAN,” they alleged.
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 programs and experienced hire recruitment process.”
The workers went on to say that they would not have joined PENGASSAN if they had been paid adequately and that their decision to join came after Dangote management stated that they may unionize.
“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 unionize. We joined PENGASSAN, and it became an issue,” they expressed worries.
Speaking 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.
