Electricity Workers In Anambra Protest Non Payment

           

Non implementation of agreements reached  between workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and government coupled with disengagement of 3,000 casuals without benefits have continued to bother the leadership of the National Union of Electricity Emplyees (NUEE) at all levels.

Members of  the union in Anambra state yesterday staged a peaceful protest  at the Awka headquarters of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company to draw government attention to their grievances over labour-related issues.

Speaking at the rally, Anambra State Chairman of NUEE, Comrade Steve Ezenwa said the union members were protesting government inability to have concluded payment of severance benefits as agreed with the workers, saying that even the pension component of the severance benefits also remained unpaid.

"Salary has continued to dwindle. And you know labour practice is not negotiable with reference to international labour organization convention that allowed workers in an organized place to unionize. The investors are trying to kill unions in the power sector by denying the workers their check off. Since the investors took over in November last year, no union check off has been paid and they have not allowed meeting between the union and the management," Comrade Ezenwa lamented.

He said that even 10% equity share due for the workers based on an agreement was denied, adding that the disengagement exercise was illigal "as it is not based on any known criterion including age, length of service or any fraud committed."

He said: "No clear-cut criterion was used to disengage. The list should be revisited by the government and the investors with a view to determining the criteria used in the exercise. Those who are due to be retired are still working but those who have longer years to spend in office are retired. So, this has to be revisited and properly addressed," Ezenwa said.

For now, according to him, workers in the new arrangement do not know the condition of service being applied "and our salary has no definition. We receive below what we were receiving in PHCN. And if government does not intervene, there is possibility of strike soon if our national headquarters approves of it."