By Eberechi Obinagwam,
Electricity workers yesterday, suspended the industrial action for two weeks.
The suspension was reached after a conciliation meeting by the Federal Government with the two in-house Unions held yesterday, August 17, 2022 at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment Central Area Abuja.
The meeting deliberated on most of the issues in contention and ended with the following resolutions:
- On the Issue of Unbundling of TCN, it was put to rest as the government denied ever contemplating such an agenda.
- On the Issue of stigmatization of Ex-PHCN workers, who have been denied employment opportunities in TCN; a high power committee was inaugurated comprising the Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Power, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, BPE, Market Operator, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation and the Two in-house Unions as members; to fine-tune policy as was considered discriminatory and unacceptable and revert immediately.
- Payment of outstanding arrears of privatization; The Ministry of Power was mandated to activate a sincere process with BPE to pay the outstanding liabilities (16th-month arrears) and a comprehensive report is expected in two weeks.
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Calling off the one-day action strike against Transmission Company of Nigeria, (TCN) which threw the country into a total blackout yesterday, General Secretary, National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Joe Ajaero said: “We have met and discussed the issues and then we have promises upon promises. Two weeks is not a long time. We will all live to come back to it. We have been asked to suspend our actions and when you suspend an action you can recall it at any moment.
“We want to believe that government will handle this matter in good fate because some of them have lingered to a very dangerous one. But, we will not wait for one or two years to review our actions if the contest of what we agreed todaon y are is fully implemented.
“We will take a pause now and wait for about two weeks. Two weeks is not a century. We will come back to review what has happened and what was disobeyed. But with the best of intentions the interest of electricity users in the country, we are going to met meet with the two in house unions to review the situation, “
The Federal Ministry of Power appealed to National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) to give them two weeks from the date of the letter sent on the 15th August to a allow them address the issues and come up with proposals towards acceptable resolution of all issues.