A Warri based lawyer, Mr. Lucky Egboyi, on Monday asked the labour and trade unions, especially the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN and Dangote Refinery to explore and adopt dialogue in resolving their dispute.
The legal practitioner made the call in a chat with our Correspondent in Warri as PENGASSAN began its nationwide strike over the sack of 800 of its members by Dangote Refinery.
Egboyi stressed that dialogue was a better option rather than strikes at every given opportunity, warning that it is only the common masses whose lives revolve around fuel and crude oil products that will suffer in disputes such as this in the country.
“Parties should resort to dialogue as a way forward,” he advised.
On whether workers have rights to join union, Egboyi said, “By virtue of relevant laws, Section 6, Section 9 and 12 of Labour Act, Section 40 of the Constitution gives the workers liberty, freedom to join any association they deem fit and no employer whether individual or otherwise can restrict the right of workers to join any of such unions.
“So, Dangote does not have right to limit or compel its workers to dissociate themselves with trade unions.”
According to Egboyi,”They should join if they have right to except the workers in question decide to put it in writing that he does not want to join such unions.”
Egboyi explained that,”No employer has right to compel a worker to dissociate himself from union activities. It is against the law. Both the Labour Act and Trade Union Act and the Constitution.”
On why the 800 PENGASSAN members were sacked, he said, “Dangote says he is sacking them to embark on operational efficiency to do a shake off. Well, if that is the reason, theunion cannot impose incompetent workers on an employer.
”An employer has the right to choose the best workers who will promote his operational efficiency. So, Dangote if that is the reason but PENGASSAN is also alleging that Dangote has sacked these people only to replace them with Indian nationals. if that is true, that is quite wrong too. Dangote has no right to do that. It depends on the reason for the sack. But if the sack is associated with the right of workers to join unions, that is quite wrong like I have said before.”
“My advice is that let party resort to dialogue and this culture of resorting to strike, fight and antagonism at every opportunity given is not the best for us in this country. People should learn how to dialogue and negotiate. That’s my message to both parties.”
Egboyi also opined that the powers given to unions in the country are too much. He said Federal Government should look towards amending the relevant laws to whittle down the power of the unions because right now, the unions especially the labour union and associate bodies, can ground the country to a halt if they want to. Their powers should be decentralized.”
