A month after the dispute with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) led to the dismissal of some of its technical staff, the Dangote Refinery has reinstated many of the affected engineers and redeployed them to other project locations across the country, Peak Newspaper reports.
Sources familiar with the development said the redeployment covers new operational and construction sites in Borno, Zamfara and a number of other states, as the company moves to defuse tensions triggered by the earlier layoffs.
The refinery had come under pressure from PENGASSAN and industry stakeholders after the mass dismissal, which the union described as retaliatory and a violation of labour agreements. The standoff prompted threats of industrial action before both sides returned to the negotiation table.
It was learnt that part of the resolution included absorbing the dismissed engineers into alternative branches of Dangote Group’s energy and industrial operations, rather than restoring them to the refinery’s main site in Lagos.
Officials of PENGASSAN have yet to make a formal statement on whether the union considers the redeployment a satisfactory resolution of the dispute or whether further actions remain on the table.
