PHCN Workers Begin Strike Tomorrow

The already deplorable power situation in the country may worsen as employees of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) have threatened to stop the supply of electricity across the country by October 2 if the federal government goes ahead to handover the assets of the company to private investors today without the conclusion of payment of workers entitlements.The industrial action follows the expiration of the ultimatum issued by the workers to government to resolve all labour issues ahead of the privatisation of PHCN.In preparation for the industrial action, the workers will today hold a nationwide protest to alert Nigerians of impending shutdown of the power sector on Wednesday.

Speaking under the umbrella of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), the union directed its members to withdraw their services from all PHCN installations immediately after the celebration of the nation’s 53 Independence anniversary.The union, in a statement issued by its secretary, Joe Ajaero, said the industrial action became necessary in view of government refusal to resolve the outstanding labour issues with the workers.The union said it was particularly disturbed by the statement credited to the Chairman of National Council on Privatisation (NCP), Vice-President Namadi Sambo that government had settled all the labour issues which had impeded the smooth take off of the privatisation programme and the handover to private investors.
The union insisted that the vice-president was either being misled or deliberately keen on emasculating the PHCN workers with a view to further impoverishing them.It challenged the Office of the Vice-President “to mention any person from his constituency – Kaduna State where he served as governor, who has been paid his entitlement, pension and gratuity.”The union further alleged governments deployment of military personnel to all PHCN facilities stating that the aim was to ostensibly to allow a forceful takeover of the installations without conclusively settling the labour issues.It noted that the policy of deploying soldiers to PHCN installations to intimidate workers was “definitely misguided and misdirected as they are directed to creating more tension to already tensed polity.”