Can you stop your staff from joining a union? What the Dangote–PENGASSAN standoff taught every employer

What happened

In late September 2025, PENGASSAN, the union for senior staff in the oil and gas industry, said the Dangote refinery had dismissed more than 800 Nigerian workers because they had joined the union. The refinery said the exits were part of a reorganisation that followed reported sabotage putting the plant at risk.

PENGASSAN called a nationwide strike and told its members to cut crude and gas supplies to the refinery. The refinery obtained a court order against the supply cut, and the Federal Government stepped in. According to NNPC, the three-day strike shut major terminals and gas plants, deferred about 283,000 barrels of oil a day and caused a 20% shortfall in power supply. Weeks earlier, the drivers’ union, NUPENG, had also struck over the right of the refinery’s tanker drivers to unionise.

On 1 October 2025, after talks led by the Minister of Labour, the parties agreed three things: union membership is a right that must be respected; the disengaged staff would be moved to other Dangote Group companies with no loss of pay; and no one would be victimised over the dispute. PENGASSAN suspended its strike and said it would watch closely.

What the law says

• Joining a union is a right. The Constitution protects freedom of association, including the right to belong to a trade union.

• Employers cannot penalise membership. Under section 9(6) of the Labour Act, a contract cannot make union membership (or non-membership) a condition of the job, and an employer cannot dismiss or disadvantage a worker for union membership or lawful union activity.

• Membership is voluntary. A union cannot force anyone to join either.

• Strikes have rules too. Under the Trade Disputes Act, a strike is lawful only after the dispute procedures (mediation, conciliation, arbitration or the National Industrial Court) have been used. Workers in essential services, which include the supply of fuel and power, must give at least 15 days’ notice. A union that skips those steps takes on legal risk of its own.

Employers can still dismiss for genuine misconduct, including sabotage, if they follow a proper process and can prove it. What they cannot do is use a reorganisation as cover for removing union members.

Our view: resisting unions costs more than recognising them

Look at where the dispute ended. More than 800 people were to be kept on full pay elsewhere in the group, operations had been disrupted, and the dispute had played out in public for weeks. A recognition agreement and a grievance process people trusted would have cost far less.

The lesson is not limited to oil. Any business that grows past a few dozen staff will eventually face a request to unionise. The businesses that handle it well do three things early:

1. Decide your position before you are asked. Have a written policy that respects the right to join a union and sets out how a request for recognition will be handled.

2. Build an internal grievance channel people trust. Most union drives begin with complaints nobody listened to.

3. Keep discipline separate from membership. If someone must go for misconduct, run a clean process with evidence, and avoid timing that makes it look like a response to union activity.

For unions, the lesson runs the other way. A strike in an essential service that skips the statutory steps hands the employer a legal argument and costs the public. The strongest unions win by using the process, not by going around it.

What to do now

Employers

• Check your contracts and handbooks for anything that discourages union membership, and remove it.

• Put a recognition and grievance policy in place now, while relations are calm.

• Before any restructuring that affects unionised staff, take advice on process, timing and how you communicate it.

Employees

• You have the right to join a union. Keep a record if you are threatened or treated differently because of it.

• Raise complaints in writing through the proper channel first. A paper trail helps you, your union and, if it comes to it, the court.