By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
LAGOS – PETROLEUM and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, yesterday, advised  management of Phillips Oil Company Nigeria Ltd (ConocoPhillips), an upstream operator,  to jettison its planned sack of Nigerian workers or risk unprecedented industrial unrest.

At a briefing in Lagos, Lagos Zonal Chairman of PENGASSAN, Comrade Folorunso Oginni, threatened that the oil workers would not hesitate to shut down the sector should the company go ahead with its plans.

Comrade Oginni said that the union had received a letter from ConocoPhillips on its plan to sack majority of Nigerians workers in the company and described the step as “unjust and unprocedural”, saying the company claimed that it had received the consent of the Minister of Labour and Productivity to carry out the exercise.

“If urgent action is not taken to avert the situation by the Minster of Labour and Productivity, all our members in the upstream producing company will embark on indefinite industrial action.. The company has successfully transferred nine jobs being handled by qualified and competent Nigerians to their offices in the U.S and Europe in the last two years.