The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, on the final day of its three days warning strike, announced a temporary ceasefire.
The union had embarked on a three days strike action on Monday to protest unfair labour practices of some oil companies and had threatened to embark on an indefinite strike, if at the end of Wednesday the federal government failed to broker a deal with it.
It directed all its members at the depots to stop loading petroleum products for the period to protest the alleged inhuman treatment by the management of Chevron, Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC and Agip Oil Company.
The strike was also called to protest the refusal of Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, to implement the signed collective bargaining agreement with petroleum tanker drivers.
However, in a meeting held Wednesday with the group managing director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, he pleaded with the management of the three oil companies to rectify the employment status of casual tanker drivers in their organisations.
At the conclusion of the round-table discussion, the NUPENGPresident, Achese Igwe, said the decision to end the industrial action was for the interest of the public.
He highlighted the major issues which had led to the warning strike to include the high level of insecurity in Nigeria, bad state of the roads, rising oil theft in the Niger Delta, non-adherence to guidelines on contract staffing/casualisation in the sector and abuse of expatriate quota.
Igwe threatened that if the issues were not quickly resolved, the union will not give further notice to the government before embarking on an indefinite strike.