The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has suspended monthly salary payments to engineers it dismissed in September amid its dispute with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria.

PENGASSAN said it is currently engaging the Dangote Group to resolve the issue amicably rather than initiate another industrial action.

Findings show the salaries were halted after many of the affected engineers declined redeployment to locations such as Zamfara, Borno, Benue, and Sokoto states, according to The Punch.

Some of the affected workers, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said they were assigned to locations far outside their core roles — including a coal mine in Benue, concrete road construction sites in Borno and Ebonyi, and rice processing plants in Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, and Zamfara.

Although a small number of employees agreed to the redeployment, many turned it down, banking on PENGASSAN’s promise that the dispute would be settled amicably.

In October, the Dangote Group signalled its displeasure by reducing the workers’ wages, before stopping their salaries entirely in November.

A senior official of the company confirmed to our correspondent that Dangote would not continue paying employees who rejected the redeployment assignments.

While the affected workers described the stoppage of their salaries as “victimisation,” the official — who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak — questioned why the company should continue paying employees who rejected the alternative postings offered to them.

“Those whose services were terminated were given an opportunity to work in our other projects, such as rice mills, concrete road construction, and coal mines.

“All those who accepted have started working.

“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.

Recall that PENGASSAN had earlier shut down oil and gas facilities in September, alleging that 800 refinery workers were dismissed for opting to join the union. The Dangote Refinery, however, denied this, saying only a small number of employees involved in acts of sabotage were let go as part of a reorganisation.

The shutdown triggered nationwide losses in oil and gas output and contributed to a decline in power generation until the Federal Government intervened and ordered the redeployment of the affected workers.

Speaking at a briefing last week, PENGASSAN President Festus Osifo said the union was still in discussions with the Dangote Refinery to resolve the outstanding issues.

Osifo said, “Since our last national industrial action, we have been engaging them in a lot of conversations, but the issues are not fully resolved. There are still a lot of pending issues. The NEC decided that, yes, let us still continue that process by pushing those issues by engaging in a dialogue to resolve the issues, and by also engaging all our social partners and stakeholders to get the issues resolved. And we hope and pray that these issues will be resolved at the table.

“These issues should be resolved in mere jaw-jaw so that we will not go back to Egypt. But as PENGASSAN, you know, we don’t shy away from doing what is right. But our preference is to get the subject resolved over the negotiation table.”