• Firms must offer stable jobs, reduce expat-local pay gaps
• Inspections, salary scales planned to enforce labor reforms
  

The Gabonese government plans a set of measures to end job insecurity in the oil sector. At a meeting held on Tuesday, October 21, in Libreville, Petroleum and Gas Minister Sosthène Nguema Nguema and Labor Minister Patrick Barbera Isaac met representatives of the National Organization of Petroleum Employees (ONEP), the Gabonese Petroleum Union (UPEGA), and the Convention of Gabonese Indigenous Petroleum Companies (CEPAG).

Talks focused mainly on the widespread use of monthly renewable contracts, a practice the Petroleum Minister called “unacceptable.” He ordered their elimination and set a deadline of December 31, 2025, for companies to comply.

The government instructed oil operators, including subcontractors, to offer employees longer fixed-term or permanent contracts and to narrow pay gaps between Gabonese and expatriate staff. To enforce these directives, an inspection team will be deployed in November 2025 in Ogooué-Maritime, the country’s main oil-producing region. A registry of service and staffing firms will also be created.

A joint ministerial order will set salary scales by job category to harmonize pay and promote transparency in human resource management.

The move follows repeated union complaints about wage disparities and delayed payments—issues that have long fueled labor unrest in a sector employing thousands of Gabonese workers. The Petroleum Minister reaffirmed the president’s commitment to uphold workers’ dignity. Last month, the government announced a gradual plan to replace foreign staff with Gabonese citizens in petroleum distribution roles.

Abdel-Latif Boureima