Yemisi Izuora
Oil workers union protesting Halliburton’s job cuts, have ended their strike.
“The strike was called off,” Emmanuel Ojugbana, spokesman for the Petroleum and Natural Gas Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) said.
Halliburton staff closed its operations on Tuesday, saying they opposed the company’s decision to sack 46 local employees.
Reuters had reported that oil services provider Halliburton Co was shut down by the union in protest against job cuts.
Tokunbo Korodo, Lagos chairman for the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), told Reuters the group halted operations on Monday saying it was opposed to Halliburton’s decision to sack 46 local staff members.
The union accused Halliburton of not following due process.
Halliburton’s staff cuts in Nigeria are part of a company-wide jobs cull announced earlier this year to counter a sharp downturn in global oil prices since last summer that has shrunk profits.
In April, the company, which provides drilling services to Royal Dutch Shell PLC (Xetra: R6C1.DE – news) and Chevron Corp in Africa’s top oil producer, said it had cut 9,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of the global workforce, and that more were planned.
“Halliburton is in conversations with the union to resolve the pending issues,” a company spokeswoman said via email. “We will continue to monitor the business environment and will make additional adjustments…as needed,” she said.
She declined to comment on how many jobs had been cut or what operations were impacted.
The shutdown was confirmed by another oil industry trade union – Petroleum and Natural Gas Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) – which said the U.S. company sacked trade union executives in an attempt to weaken the bodies representing workers’ rights, Emmanuel Ojugbana spokesman for PENGASSAN said.