Deal: ‘Take it or Leave it’ – Dangote Refinery subdues FG, Labor unions

The Federal Government  brokered peace deal between the management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has left hundreds of sacked but reengaged Dangote Refinery staff in a more precarious situation, Business Hallmark can report.

Though the official resolution of the dispute immediately ended the disruption in the nation’s downstream petroleum, as well as presented the affected workers a huge life line, new developments are creating doubts in the minds of the workers, who are increasingly uncertain about the security of their jobs in their new postings.

According to some of the affected workers, who spoke to BH on their experience at their new duty posts, the terms of the agreement are not favorable to them.

“The agreements are murky and unclear, and likely subject to manipulations by the refinery’s management, which will further create challenges for us”, the workers argued.

The arrangement, the workers claimed, had made staff already deployed useless in their present postings, creating fears of imminent job losses.

It would be recalled that oil workers under the auspices of PENGASSAN had on Monday, September 29th, 2025, embarked on industrial action to protest the sacking of 800 workers by the management of Dangote Refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.

The management of the refinery had described the purge, which came on the heels of reported cases of sabotage in different units in the facility as a major reorganization exercise,

However, PENGASSAN said the action is an affront to all workers in Nigeria and a deliberate violation of Nigeria’s labor laws, the constitution and ILO conventions.

It, therefore, called out seven of its branches to go on strike in an effort to force the management of Dangote Refinery to reconsider their decision.

It took the intervention of the Federal Government, which brokered a precarious peace deal to resolve the logjam.

Pyric Victory

Speaking after the peace parley on Wednesday, October 1st, 2025, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi, said the matter had been resolved following lengthy discussions.

“The Honourable Minister of Labour informed the meeting that unionization is a right of workers in accordance with the laws of Nigeria, and this right should be respected.

“After examining the procedure used in the disengagement of workers, the meeting agreed that the management of Dangote Group shall immediately begin the process of redeploying the disengaged staff to other companies within the Dangote Group, with no loss of pay.

“No worker will be victimized arising from their role in the impasse between Dangote and PENGASSAN. PENGASSAN agreed to start the process of calling off the strike. Both parties agreed to this understanding in good faith”, the statement read.

However, less than one week after the agreement that brought big relief to affected workers, their postings to far away subsidiaries of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) where they are now idle, has left a sour taste in their mouths.

Most of the recalled workers, BH gathered at the weekend, have been posted outside Lagos to the company’s sugar and tomato production plants, rice mills and cement production plants in far away states like Benue, Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa and Kano States.

“I received a letter today (Friday) to report for duty at the company’s tomato processing facility in Kano. Initially when the news broke that we have been recalled, I was very happy.

“But now, I am totally confused. I was trained abroad by the company with others as  system managers at the refinery. What is the relationship between a tomato plant and a fuel refinery?

“What is even fueling my anxiety is the news from our colleagues, who had already  resumed at their new duty posts. While some were posted to rice mills, others resumed at  sugarcane processing facilities.

“Many of them claimed they have been hanging around with nothing to do. Even if they were given tasks to do, what can they do? They are totally useless as presently configured without adequate training and retraining”, one of the affected workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity lamented.

The affected workers, our correspondent learnt, are also concerned about their professional growth and welfare packages.

Their fears are not unfounded though. According to available data, oil workers are among the best paid, if not the best, in the world.

Leadership Betrayal

Their redeployment to less lucrative sectors will no doubt limit their professional and financial growth, industry experts argue.

Some of the affected workers, who spoke to our correspondent on the development, blamed PENGASSAN for their present predicament.

According to them, they were lured out of their comfort zone into a world where the future is now uncertain.

“Yes, there are one or two anti-labor practices at Dangote Refinery. But when compared with workers in other sectors of the economy, we (staff) are better off than many of them, who always dreamed of taking over our jobs.

“Now, we have been cleared out with no clear future. The unfortunate thing is that others will be recruited to replace us. The plant must run and needs people to do that.

“I wished I had listened to  advice from my lecturers that I should not join any labor union until we get the green light from the management”, said another worker, who did not want his name in print.

Also, some workers, who are not comfortable with the idea of traveling to to far stations while leaving their families behind, are said to be considering resigning their appointments to look for opportunities outside the DIL.

Sources familiar with the negotiations informed BH that PENGASSAN negotiators were trapped between the devil and the blue deep sea when Dangote, who had earlier insisted on not recalling the sacked workers, offered to continue paying their wages for five years while they stay far away from his plant.

The Federal Government team, it was learnt, intervened, claiming the option will put huge financial strain on the refinery.

Another stalemate was in the offing until the FG delegation suggested that Dangote take back the workers, who are then going to be redeployed to other DIL subsidiaries.

Dangote, represented by his half brother, Sayyu Dantata, reportedly agreed to the suggestion on the condition that the workers would be far away from the refinery.

Wearied and left with no other option, the Labor delegates quickly agreed to the terms of the deal, which is now threatening to unravel, as the affected workers are disgruntled.

Alluding to the fact that the outcome of the peace meeting was totally out of their hands, PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, said the union only suspended the strike strictly out of respect for the Federal Government.

“We are not happy with the terms of the agreement because it did not capture our main demand of recalling the 800 sacked Nigerians.

“But out of respect for government institutions, for the National Security Adviser, the DSS, the Chief Reconciliator of the Federation, and ministers, who worked tirelessly into the early hours of the morning to mediate, we decided to suspend the action”, Osifo explained.

Win Some, Lose Some

Also reacting to the allegation that labor secured a bad deal for affected Dangote workers, PENGASSAN’s General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, maintained that negotiations are about compromise and that what mattered most was the final agreement, not the options that were rejected.

“The option that he (Dangote) wants to pay salary for five years without any work is not important at the final stage. The most important thing is that what did you agree? That’s what you will do and not, what they disagree on.

“Even if the union was not there and they transfer you, won’t you go to where you are transfered to and continue your job. I think Nigerians should look at the positive outcome of the negotiation, not the negative aspect.

“What unions do after mediating is go back to their house, and workers and the management will continue working together.

“It’s like you try to settle a case between the husband and the wife. After settling the case between them you go back to your house and the husband and wife will live together.

“So there is no need to create enmity between them at all. We hope to have good relationship and everything with Dangote refinery in the future.

“All we are interested in is our workers’ welfare. Dangote Refinery is losing no kobo and people should not think that we are interested in his business model. The most important thing is that these people have their jobs back,” the PENGASSAN scribe explained.

Efforts to get the reaction of Dangote Refinery on the matter failed as calls and messages sent to its media managers were not answered as at press time.