Dangote, PENGASSAN Reach Truce: Sacked Refinery Workers to Be Reinstated

Dangote, PENGASSAN Reach Truce: Sacked Refinery Workers to Be Reinstated

 

 

The Dangote Group has agreed to redeploy staff previously disengaged from its refinery operations, ending its long-running dispute with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

 

The Federal Government confirmed that the affected workers would be redeployed with no loss of pay.

 

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi, said in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja: “After reviewing the procedure used in the disengagement of workers, it was agreed that the Dangote Group management shall immediately begin redeploying the affected staff to other companies within the group, with no loss of pay.”

 

Dr. Dingyadi added that PENGASSAN had agreed to call off its strike, emphasizing that “unionisation is a right of workers under Nigerian law, and this right must be respected.”

 

The dispute escalated after PENGASSAN accused refinery management of mass transfers and sackings, and of replacing some Nigerian staff with foreign nationals—a claim the Dangote Group consistently denied. Tensions peaked when the union halted gas and crude oil supplies to the refinery, prompting intervention from the Federal Government over fears of the dispute’s impact on the nation’s economy and energy security.

 

Conciliation talks had previously stalled, but Wednesday’s meeting yielded a compromise acceptable to both parties, restoring calm in the refinery operations.