… Minister begs for 2 weeks
THE Organized Labour in the nation’s power sector has given the Minister of State for Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba and the management of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, up till this morning to address their demands or workers would commence indefinite strike today as planned.
This followed the appeal by the Minister to leaders of the organized Labour, under the aegis of National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, to shelve the workers’ strike scheduled to start today and give him two weeks to address their grievances.
The union is protesting the directive by “the TCN Board that all principal managers, in acting capacity going to Assistant General Managers, AGM, must appear for a promotion interview. This directive is in contravention of the Conditions of Service and Career Progression Paths, unilaterally done without relevant stakeholders.”
But responding to the Minster’s appeal, NUEE in a letter dated August 16, 2022, by its scribe, told the Minister and the Managing Director\Chief Executive Officer: “It is disheartening that an agreement reached with the union as a result of the intervention from your esteemed office almost three years down the line has not been implemented.
”Unfortunately, the issues raised and not addressed have relapsed/metamorphosed as part of the causes of the industrial unrest in the sector.
“On the stigmatization of staff from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation from working in other areas in the power sector, we are not sure you are speaking for the Head of Service after memos addressed to that office several months ago have gone without any acknowledgement.
“On the issues affecting violation/contravention of TCN’s condition of service by the TCN board, the management has only written by proxy for the board.
”Premised on the foregoing, we may be constrained to continue with this action by Wednesday (today) with a total withdrawal of services.
”However, the union is still open to decisive discussions with relevant actors; with a view to proffering solutions to the issues raised and averting the total collapse of the sector.”
Sequel to Monday’s directive by leaders of NUEE to workers to begin an indefinite strike from today over unresolved industrial issues, the Minister of State for Power had pleaded with the leaders of the workers to shelve the planned strike and sought two weeks to resolve the pending issues.
The minister in a letter to NUEE’s General Secretary, Joe Ajaero, dated August 15, 2022, said: “The Ministry of Power takes cognizance of your complaints therein and a committed to proffering solutions that will be acceptable to all parties concerned.
“May we appeal to your great union to allow us two weeks from the date of this letter to address the issues and come up with proposals toward an acceptable resolution of all issues.”