…SSAEAC wants FG sack TCN management to avoid industrial action
Bimbola Oyesola, 08033246177
Organised labour in the power sector at the weekend said uncollected revenue for energy delivered has hit N1.1 trillion.
This is even as the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Company (SSAEAC) has called for the immediate change of the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) over its anti-labour practices, or face industrial action.
Chris Okonkwo, president of the union, during a media parley over the weekend at the union’s secretariat in Lagos, said elecricity workers, under the umbrella of SSAEAC, have alleged that despite various interventions by the Ministry of Labour to resolve the issue with various meetings, the managing director of TCN, Gur Mohammed, disregarded the invitations.
The union accused TCN management of violating the negotiated conditions of service, impunity and destruction of the unions by instigating eight members against the constituted authority.
He said the two-week ultimatum given the TCN had elapsed and all were enjoined to wait for signal for long-drawn nationwide action to save TCN and the power sector as statutory notices has been given to government agencies.
Okonkwo accused the management led by Mohammed of being on a mission to wound down TCN’s operation as a government company by its plan to reduce the regions to four, refusal to replace retiring assistant general managers and general managers without recourse to labour matters.
The union among others also alleged that the MD diverted SSAEAC check off dues to cronies before writing to confirm it after he propped up expelled officials to cause disunity in the union as well as determination to kill the negotiated conditions of service.
On the failure to collect revenue, the union’s president said the debt has increased astronomically because the discos have layed off workers that ought to be revenue officers and are over working the few available to make excess profits.
He said: “Before the privatisation of PHCN, it was 70 per cent efficient, but four years after being privatised, the sector is between 30 to 40 per cent efficient and we ascribed to the view that due process was not followed in the process.
“They said they would look for investments from abroad when they bought PHCN, but now they are trying to fleece Nigerians after failing to meet the agreements signed through higher tariffs which is not good.”
Equally on the issue of estimated billing by distribution companies by the (discos), Okonkwo said it was a way discos fraudulently make profits from the sweat of Nigerians, noting that it was unjust, an economic crime against Nigerians.
He said the problem with the power sector is due to the lack of sincerity and political will by government to obey the clauses in the privatisation agreement signed by those who bought PHCN.