By Victor AHIUMA-YOUNG

Organised Labour in the nation’s oil industry, has said it has no problem with mergers and acquisitions if labour issues are addressed and the merger or acquisition conforms with international standards and extant laws of Nigeria.

Reacting to  the report that ExxonMobil had sold its downstream operations, Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, to Nipco Plc, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and its Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, counterpart, said though they could not stop mergers and acquisitions because both were business decisions, they would not accept a situation where labour issues were not addressed and the nation’s laws disregarded.

The two workers’ bodies in the sector, said so far, the ExxonMobil and Nipco deal, had not given them issues of concern, though they insisted that they were still watching developments as they unfold.

Speaking to Vanguard, Acting General Secretary of PENGASSAN, Mr. Lumumba Okugbawa, said the branch Union in Mobil has not informed the national secretariat of any challenge with its discussions with the management of Mobil.

According to him, “We are watching developments and monitoring everything. So far, we do not have reason to raise issue or complain because our branch union has not informed us of any challenge or problem with its management. We are aware both parties have been in discussions.

“As a body, we have no problem with merger and acquisition in as much as labour issues are addressed and the nation’s labour laws are respected. It is only when labour issues are not addressed and extant laws breached that we have issues. When such happens, we take up arms against it. We cannot stop mergers and acquisitions because they are business decisions. What we do is to ensure they are done in accordance with international standards, that labour issues are addressed and the country’s laws are respected.

“Mobil is a unionized company and we expect the new owners to continue in the respect of the workers’ rights to freedom of association and assembly as enshrined in the nation’s law, African Charter and International Labour Organization, ILO. Once this is respected and other labour issues are addressed, we do not have problems.

“There are challenges in the sector and mergers and acquisitions have been going on for sometime. One of the most recent one is the African Petroleum, AP, that was taken over by Forte Oil.

“We want a robust downstream sector in Nigeria. We also know that for there to be a buyer, there must be a seller”.

Similarly, NUPENG General Secretary, Mr. Joseph Ogbebor, corroborated his PENGASSAN counterpart’s opinion and insisted  that NUPENG had no problem with mergers and acquisitions if done in accordance with international standards and labour issues addressed, stating, however, “but if the labour issues are not addressed, we will react. We do not expect employers to breach extant labour laws in this modern time because they know the consequences.”

Labour issues stall refineries sale

Contrary to speculations that asset pricing issues and timing were responsible for reversal of plans by government to privatise the nation’s petroleum refineries, it is now known that another major consideration was labour issues.

Speaking at last week at the launch of the Short and Medium Term Priorities to Grow Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry (2015 – 2019), tagged the ‘7BigWins’, a new initiative by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, indicated that one of the major considerations in holding back the privatization of the refineries had to do with labour unions.

Giving reasons why the country is not keen on privatizing the refineries at the moment, he stated that the Presidency and the National Economic Council, NEC, had agreed that the refineries should be restored to its optimum capacity and made to work efficiently, while other issues should be addressed to guide against selling the refineries as scraps.

He stated: “The feeling of the FEC and the President is that we should first get the refineries to be efficient before we talk about privatization, otherwise, we will be selling scraps. In their present state, nobody is going to offer you serious money.  A huge amount of investment is going into this.

The minister, however, added: “Secondly, there are union issues. We do not just take decisions, not recognizing that people work there.

“If you privatise in a hurry and you are sucked into union issues, that closes the place and it does not function for years. We got to take the realities on ground.

“The decision therefore was to find investors who are willing, almost on a loan structure basis to put money, put the technical skills, work with our people who are there.”