Unions accuse oil firms of skewing jobs in favour of expats

Nigerian unions are accusing multinationals pumping most of the country's oil of unfair labour practices designed to favour expatriates, and this week forced one oil major to shut down for six days. Elf Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of French oil giant Total, suspended production of its entire daily output of 235,000 barrels last Friday as "a precautionary safety measure" ahead of a threatened strike by unions, who accused the management of reserving certain jobs for white employees. The company, which accounts for roughly 10 percent of Nigeria's total oil output, said it had restarted production on Thursday after reaching an agreement with union leaders during overnight talks brokered by the Labour Ministry. According to a copy of the deal obtained by IRIN, Total agreed to allow five Nigerians to work as 'production superintendents', a position unions had alleged was reserved for expatriates. Some Nigerian analysts believe the unions are protesting what have been longstanding practices in the country’s oil industry but note that they have chosen to make the charges at a time when the oil giants may be vulnerable. "Increasingly oil multinationals are under global scrutiny from human rights and environmental groups, as well as regulators, about their internal practices,” Mike Okomiko, an oil industry analyst, told IRIN. The companies are highly inclined to seek quick compromises, he said, because with global oil prices touching $40 a barrel, they are reluctant to see production fall and miss out on their share of the pie. Other analysts note the recent scandal over overstated oil reserves that rocked Shell, as well as the general suspicion of corporate wrongdoing, and say that few multinationals want the public attention of a prolonged dispute. And if the row at Elf Nigeria is a benchmark, it seems the unions might get away with flexing their muscles. A clause in the agreement reached on Wednesday night says "no worker shall be victimised as a result of the shutdown of the company’s field operations". Elf Nigeria is not alone with its unions woes. Similar disputes are also simmering in the Nigerian subsidiaries of Royal Dutch/Shell, which accounts for nearly 50 percent of the country’s daily output of 2.5 million barrels, and ExxonMobil, which ranks next in output with over 600,000 barrels a day. In March, Shell Nigeria announced plans for a far-reaching reorganization, including job cuts, to try to cut production costs to US $1.50 per barrel of crude oil from about US $2.30 at present. In the process, the company also hopes to boost output from about one million barrels a day to 1.5 million within two years. Nigerian employees, under the aegis of the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG), were quick to pick holes in the new corporate plans. A document signed by Lucky Idudun, chairman of the Shell Nigeria branch of PENGASSAN and his NUPENG counterpart Harcourt Ezekiel, described the plan as "a ploy to actualise the agenda of getting rid of Nigerians" in the company. The main source of rising costs was more expatriates on the payroll, the unions argued, saying the number of expatriates rose by 40 percent in 2002/2003 when the number of Nigerians increased by just 10 percent. "Nigerian contract staff who are better qualified than their expatriate counterparts earn far less in a month than the expatriates earn in a day," the union leaders said. They also said many expatriates were also being brought in as "contract staff", some of them just to work as "vehicle dispatchers". Last month the unions staged a two-day "warning strike" to demonstrate their opposition to Shell management. They threatened to shut down operations if Shell went ahead with its plans and the company has since been in negotiations with them. Meanwhile on Monday, unions at ExxonMobil’s Nigerian subsidiary issued their management a 21-day ultimatum to redress what they describe as the influx of expatriates into the company or face an indefinite strike. The company confirmed in a statement on Wednesday there were disagreements but said it had embarked on "collective bargaining" with the unions and stressed its "belief in dialogue as the most logical mechanism for resolving outstanding issues".