The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) has served the Federal Government its notice to go on strike- an action which would cause widespread scarcity of petroleum products in the country.

The Union had on Monday, last week served the government a 7-day ultimatum to meet its demands.

PENGASSAN had demanded that the government honor the directive of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation by implementing the 2015 collective bargaining agreement and also requested the government and relevant organisations to begin the process of resolving critical industrial relations issues in H15, Leme, Chevron, Fugro and other oil firms.

Reacting to the notice of strike, Special Assistant to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr. Nwachukwu Obidiwe said that the government received the notice and had reached out to the group for negotiations.

Obidiwe, in an interview with Punch Newspaper on Monday said the government would have met with the Nigeria Labour Congress to negotiate the hike in the price of fuel if PENGASSAN had not issued its strike notice.

Obidiwe stated, “I think that on Tuesday they are going to deal with the PENGASSAN issue and subsequently, the NLC. The PENGASSAN meeting is for mid day also on Tuesday.”

“Of course, they will invite them, but PENGASSAN issued a warning strike so they are meeting with PENGASSAN on Tuesday.”

“The minister said on Sunday that the decision (of Wabba’s NLC) to call off the strike was a welcome development and that he was expecting them to return back to the negotiation table.”

Adebayo Emuleomo