BREAKING: PENGASSAN -Dangote rift widen as Dangote Refinery stops the monthly salaries of engineers sacked in September due to the refusal of many of the engineers to accept their redeployment to Zamfara, Borno, Benue, and Sokoto states, among others.
Some of the engineers, who spoke to Punch on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said individuals were sent to a coal mine in Benue, concrete road construction sites in Borno and Ebonyi states, as well as rice plants in Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, and Zamfara.
While a few workers were said to have accepted the redeployment, many rejected it, relying on assurances from PENGASSAN that the crisis would be resolved through dialogue.
It was learnt that the Dangote Group issued a warning signal in October by slashing the wages of the affected workers before withholding their November salaries completely. A senior official of the Dangote Group confirmed to Punch that the company would no longer continue paying those who rejected the redeployment offers.
While the affected workers described the non-payment of their salaries as “victimisation”, the official, who did not want his name in print due to the lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, wondered why the company should keep paying individuals who had refused the alternative placements offered.
“If a newspaper terminates the services of an employee, and if it even goes out of its way to provide alternative employment, but the employee is not interested in availing the alternative employment, will it keep paying his/her salary?” the official said.
In October, the sacked engineers were invited to pick up their letters at the Ikeja office of the Dangote Group. One of the letters sighted by our correspondent was titled ’Offer of Trainee Engagement’ and carried the letterhead of Dangote Projects Limited.
It reads partly: “Based on your performance at the assessment and subsequent interviews held with you, we are pleased to engage you as Engineer Trainee (Mechanical Engineering) for the coal project we are executing at Okpokwu, Benue State. This engagement shall be subject to the following conditions: You will report to your work location within 14 days upon receipt of this letter.
“You will undergo classroom training and hands-on training in the construction, commissioning, and operation of our Coal Project at Okpokwu, Benue State. Your training will be for a period of two years, and it will be reviewed periodically. You will be required to submit reports on your learning and progress. The objective of the training is to impart to you skills and to enable you to take up a position of responsibility in the organisation.”
Many of the engineers expressed concerns about the posting, especially to places perceived to be security hot spots. “The issue with the re-employment is that, firstly, there’s no address to report to on that letter. No office to report to in the states we were posted to. Secondly, those are security hot zones.
“Thirdly, in the letter, it is stated that if you don’t report within 14 days, your employment will be terminated, but no office location was given, and they don’t exist when we checked on Google Maps. So, if we accept the letters, we are basically terminating our employment by ourselves because there’s no office in those states to report to. PENGASSAN has basically told us not to accept the letters. We should let them continue with their talks,” they told The PUNCH.
Speaking during a briefing last week, the PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, said the union was still engaging the Dangote refinery to have the issues resolved.