Mr Okugbawa said the decision to suspend the strike action
followed the intervention of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources,
Timpre Sylva, in the crisis.
An update on the crisis contained in a memo to all PENGASSAN
and NUPENG affiliate chapters and branches across the country said “the matter
has been apprehended and discussions ongoing with the Honourable Minister of
State for Petroleum Resources.”
The strike action was earlier called by the joint National
Executive Committee of PENGASSAN and NUPENG on Sunday.
The action was called to protest the alleged forceful
enrolment of the oil workers into what they called “defective payment platform
(the lntegrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (lPPlS)” by the
federal government.
They said the strike action was pursuant to their demand
concerning their members working in federal government agencies, whose salaries
were withheld since May, over alleged non-compliance with the federal government’s
directive by all its agencies to enroll on the IPPIS payment platform.
The affected agencies include the Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR), Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA),
Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF), the
Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Nigerian Nuclear
Regulatory Agency (NNRA) and Petroleum Training Institute (PTI).
On June 8, PENGASSAN wrote to the Minister of Finance,
Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to protest the decision by the
government not to pay the workers, allegedly at the instance of the finance
ministry.
On June 19, another letter sent to the Minister State for
Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, threatened disruption of the country’s oil
and gas sector if the implementation of the IPPIS was carried out unilaterally,
or the matter resolved without their input.
They accused the government of demanding the enrolment of
their members on the IPPIS platform without taking into consideration the
peculiarities of the oil and gas industry with regards to the Collective Bargaining
Agreement (CBA) and approved pay structure between the unions and the federal
government through the Salaries, Wages and Income Commission.
They flawed the decision by the accountant general’s office
to insist on the enrollment of the affected agencies on IPPIS despite the fact
that the federal government revived the Government Integrated Financial
Management Information System (GIFMIS) where the affected agencies were
currently enrolled.
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