Relief as Electricity Workers Shelve Strike

Written by This Day Monday, 26 July 2010 05:19

Electricity consumers in the country can heave a sigh of relief as the indefinite industrial action, which electricity workers under the aegis of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) had planned to embark on today, has been suspended.

The workers’ decision to suspend the action followed the commitment they extracted from the Federal Government to make available an initial N5 billion for the commencement of the payment of their monetisation arrears today and to complete it within 30 days.

At a protracted meeting between officials of the union and the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Nuhu Somo Way, at Sheraton Hotel in Lagos last night, the workers agreed to shelve the action to enable the government address their grievances.

Part of the communiqué at the end of the meeting reads: “The planned industrial action by the unions is shelved by two days, Monday, July 25 and Tuesday, July 27, 2010, to enable payment to commence and for the meetings of the organs of the unions to be held.”

The agreement was signed by the Way, Managing Director of PHCN, Mr. Hussein Labo; President of  NUEE, Mr. Mansur Musa; General Secretary of NUEE, Mr. Joe Ajaero; President of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), Mr. Bede Opara and the Secretary of SSAEAC, Mr. Abiodun Ogunsega.

The workers were protesting planned privatisation of PHCN, non-payment of arrears of monetisation from 2003 to date, balance of 150 per cent salary increase and casualisation of PHCN workforce.
But after the negotiation, the two parties agreed that discussion on other issues would continue after the payment of the arrears of monetisation.

On the issue of the 150 per cent increase in salary, the government had paid 13 per cent, remaining a balance of 137 per cent.
However, the workers told the minister that any plan by the government to proceed with privatisation, without resolving all labour related issues would be resisted.

“We want them to address the issues, one after the other. If the workers don’t start getting their money by Tuesday, we will continue the strike. But I don’t think the minister will like that to happen,” said one of the top officials of the unions.

The workers had accused the government and PHCN management of reneging on the agreement both parties reached in May that their accrued benefits, which amounted to over N69 billion would be paid within four weeks.

They noted that they had since submitted their account details to the management but no payment was made.
NUEE had at the weekend directed their members to embark on indefinite strike action from today over Federal Government’s planned privatisation of the PHCN and its failure to pay the workers accrued benefits.

Vice-President of Lagos/Ogun Zone of NUEE, Mr. Mbang Obol Ntukube, had also dismissed the possibility of negotiating with the government over the weekend to avert the strike, saying the workers were tired of holding talks with the government.

“We are not meeting with them again. What kind of meeting? They keep on wasting PHCN resources in holding meetings. It is not government that is paying; it is from PHCN resources. You know what it costs to meet at Sheraton. We go there to meet every day at the expense of PHCN. We won’t meet again; we want payment,” he said.

“Our members all over have been directed to resist their entry into PHCN installations until all labour issues have been conclusively discussed, agreed and implemented. Where government fails to adhere to this advice and goes ahead to contemplate privatisation of PHCN, the workers would defend their hard earned investments in PHCN. We call on all Nigerians to rise up and fight against the cornering of tax payers’ investments to private pockets and political cronies in the name of privatisation,” he said.