It is no longer news that after two days of conciliation meetings, the Federal Government finally brokered peace between Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

In a statement released yesterday, Wednesday, October 1, 2025, Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi, the Minister of Labour and Employment, disclosed that the matter was resolved following lengthy discussions.

“The Honourable Minister of Labour informed the meeting that unionization is a right of workers in accordance with the laws of Nigeria, and this right should be respected,” the statement reads in part.

“After examining the procedure used in the disengagement of workers, the meeting agreed that the management of Dangote Group shall immediately begin the process of redeploying the disengaged staff to other companies within the Dangote Group, with no loss of pay.

“No worker will be victimized arising from their role in the impasse between Dangote and PENGASSAN. PENGASSAN agreed to start the process of calling off the strike. Both parties agreed to this understanding in good faith.”

BEHIND THE DISPUTE

While the official resolution may cause the sacked workers to heave a sigh of relief, they believe that what had happened in the past few days was necessary.

A process engineer who has worked at the Dangote Refinery told FIJ that staff joined PENGASSAN after years of frustration over poor conditions, stagnant pay and lack of safety measures.

He also claimed that the company did not care about its workers and their health, adding that many had nothing like an HMO plan.

“All the while, no promotion. The 25 per cent salary increase only came in January after BUA raised its staff salaries by 50 per cent for the third time, even though inflation has gone up by almost 300 per cent since I joined,” the staff told FIJ.

The engineer claimed that expatriate workers, some with little experience, were treated better than Nigerian staff. “We are the ones who train them when they arrive, but after a while they are made our bosses,” he said.

“They say we have HMO, but in reality, we don’t. The clinic drugs are poor quality, imported and ineffective, so most of us still buy medicines with our small salaries. They tell the world they provide good healthcare, but it’s not true.

“We also don’t get real allowances. There’s a section in our salary slip called ‘others’. Before, it was just N1,000. After the increment, it became N54,000. But everything we need — like PPE or allowances — comes from ‘others’. That’s not sustainable.”

He said that workers in the refinery work long hours with inadequate compensation. He told FIJ that while workers work for 12 hours daily, they are supposed to be paid an overtime of four hours, but the refinery paid them for three hours instead.

“We work 12 to 13 hours with no breaks, but they deduct one hour from our overtime pay as if we took a break. Out of four hours’ overtime, we are only paid for three,” he explained.

According to this Dangote staff member, engineers earn about N400,000 monthly, including overtime. After taxes and deductions, take-home pay can fall below N200,000.

“We are even taxed on allowances like birthdays or overtime. Out of N500,000, you could be taxed as much as N164,000,” he said.

Another issue raised by the staff was the safety conditions at work. This Dangote employee said there were no personal protective equipment and proper health facilities. He added that some of his colleagues bought medications with their own money.

“For years, hazard allowance was just N1,000. Later they added N54,000 to our salary and called it ‘others’. When we asked, they said every allowance we feel entitled to is inside that N54,000,” he said.

WHY WORKERS JOINED PENGASSAN

The Dangote employee FIJ spoke to said that many senior staff avoided union activity because they had signed agreements not to join any union before they got employed. But following an MoU that lifted such restrictions, PENGASSAN approached them again.

During PENGASSAN’s first visit, some staff members in the refinery explained that they did not have much to remit to a union from time to time but PENGASSAN told them that they were not working in line with international standards.

“They told us oil and gas workers have international standards of pay and that by joining, we could push for similar benefits,” the engineer explained. “The first day they asked us to join, about 900 signed. Within two hours, 1,000 people had signed. The management was shocked.”

The situation, according to the engineer, escalated after the circulation of reports that while Nigerian workers received modest increases, Indian expatriates’ salaries were doubled from $13,000 to $26,000 per month.

“That was the genesis of the matter. Shortly after, workers were taken home at the end of a shift and informed the next day that they had all been sacked,” the engineer told FIJ. (Adapted from a report by FIJ)