KEY POINTS
- Dangote Refinery has stopped the salaries of engineers who refused redeployment after their September sackings, intensifying tensions with PENGASSAN.
- Workers say the postings were unsafe and lacked clear reporting locations, while the company insists it cannot pay those who rejected alternative roles.
- PENGASSAN continues to push for a negotiated settlement to avoid another nationwide shutdown, but the dispute remains unresolved.
The standoff between the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and senior oil-and-gas, PENGASSAN, workers escalated again in November after the company stopped paying the salaries of engineers who were laid off in September and later offered redeployment to far-flung project sites.
The move has widened tensions with PENGASSAN, which has been trying to keep tempers down following the nationwide shutdown that shook the energy sector three months ago.
Information gathered by suggests the engineers’ pay was withheld after many refused transfer orders to sites in Zamfara, Borno, Benue, Sokoto and other states.
A number of them said they had been assigned to rice mills, coal projects, road construction camps and other operations run by the Dangote Group, well outside the oil and gas work for which they were originally hired.
Some accepted the postings, but the larger group held back, banking on assurances from PENGASSAN that the dispute would be resolved through dialogue and not by capitulation. Their salaries were trimmed in October before being stopped entirely in November, a step many of the affected workers described as punitive and unjust.
A senior Dangote Group official, who spoke privately, said the company could not be expected to continue paying those who declined alternative placements. He argued that the offers were a show of goodwill and insisted that those who accepted redeployment had already resumed duties across different project sites.
Union Presses for Negotiated Settlement as Workers Reject Postings to Security Hot Spots
Workers counter that the redeployments were ill-defined and, in some cases, unsafe. Several engineers said the letters issued to them, marked as trainee engagements under Dangote Projects Limited, carried instructions to report within 14 days to locations that, when checked, had no identifiable offices or operational footprints.
They argued that accepting such postings would amount to self-termination, as they would have no verifiable destination to report to.
Security concerns also weighed heavily. Some of the locations named in the letters fall in states troubled by banditry and insurgent activity, prompting fears that the transfers were less about operational need and more about coercing staff into resigning.
For its part, PENGASSAN has urged caution and continued engagement. The union’s president, Festus Osifo, told journalists that discussions with the refinery were ongoing but far from conclusive. He said the NEC had opted for continued dialogue to avoid another shutdown, though he stressed the union would not abandon its members if talks broke down.
The Dangote official maintained that the company would consider union requests but had its own prerogatives to protect its business interests. That stance has left the dispute in a fragile limbo, with both sides publicly committed to negotiations but privately bracing for the possibility that the current détente may not hold.
Several engineers say the situation has left them stranded between losing their livelihoods and accepting postings they consider irregular, uncertain and unsafe. They insist that an earlier understanding held that salaries would continue to be paid until the matter was settled, but this has now been upended.
As the weeks pass, the impasse shows little sign of easing. The resolution of the crisis now rests on how far both the Dangote Group and PENGASSAN are willing to compromise, and whether either side can prevent a fresh round of industrial unrest that could ripple through the wider economy.
