The Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) has tasked the Ministry of Power to implement the law clarifying the jurisdictional scope on membership with the junior counterpart, the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE).
This is even as it stated that the suspended strike of NUEE was illegally prosecuted, as conditions precedent to strike were not followed.
The union said it had written the ministry of labour and employment, as well as the minister of power, a copy of which has gone to the Presidency, detailing why the strike was the wrong approach.
President of SSAEAC, Chris Okonkwo, told journalists in Lagos that the union also wrote a letter to the permanent secretary of the ministry of power to demand the implementation of the law on jurisdiction as clarified earlier by the ministry of labour and employment.
“Our junior counterpart has taken over our members under the guise that they are senior staff and by that taken over 70 per cent of our revenues,” he said.
Ministry of labour, early this month, had clarified the jurisdictional scope as provided in Third Schedule of the Trade Union Acts CAP. T14.
It explained that the case was similar to the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) and the Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) issue, which was settled through various court pronouncements, hence the same solution applies.
It has explained that all non-professional and non-stop administrative staff belong to NUEE, while civil service qualifications for senior staff are a minimum of OND or NCE or bachelor’s degree or equivalents.
The only exception, the letter stated, is for those who joined the unions as non-professionals and who wish to remain there even after progressing to the senior rank, in which letter of employment is required.
The SSAEAC president said the union has laid out the points and demands immediate implementation of proper union membership.
“All staff records are expected to be reviewed using their qualification status, and ranks and placed in the correct union membership and appropriate deductions made and remitted,” he said.
Okonkwo noted that SSAEAC was not against unity of the two unions in the sector, but lamented that such efforts in the past had often been frustrated by NUEE members in the field.
He said, “ We are committed to teaming together as a body in the power sector to fight the battle and confront the challenges together, but that must be based on proper commitment and not just a mere information as it happened during the strike by NUEE.
“We will take up all the challenges presented to us on how we can work and fight our battles together.”