Some members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), have announced the commencement of a three-day warning strike over the implementation of the Integration payroll and personnel management system (IPPIS).
The staff members representing the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Department of Petroleum Resource (DPR), Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) and Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) protested at PPPRA head office in Abuja, chanting solidarity songs.
According to them, the industrial action is to drive home their demands and to protest the unconvincing manner their members were included in the IPPIS.
National Industrial Officer of PENGGASSAN, Kelechi Ugwulor, disclosed that the strike was occassioned by the clumsy and shoddy manner in which the agencies were enrolled on the IPPIS.
Ugwulor, who spoke with news agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the union was not against government’s effort towards ensuring transparency and accountability in government. It, however, said such laudable move should not be to the expense of the oil workers welfare.
“We are concerned with the ways our members in some government agencies are being treated with respect to IPPIS.
“In the month of September, our members in NNRA had huge sums of money deducted from their salaries, and we have decided that enough is enough.
“We are not averse to instruments of transparency in this country. Any system that offers accountability to the governance of Nigeria we are in for it, but do not do injustice to our members,’’ he warned.
Ugwulor vowed that the strike will continue until their grievances are addressed by the government.
Also, Mr Efreke Udeme, NNRA Branch Chairman of PENGASSAN, said that `bastardisation’’ of staff salaries of the agencies concerned and non release of statutory allocation of some of the agencies were responsible for the action.
He urged relevant government officials to address the issues as a matter of priority.
“Salaries arrears from March 2015 to Dec. 2016 are also outstanding in NNRA,’’ he added.
He admonished IPPIS to harmonise peculiarity allowances of all the agencies in their emoluments
