PHCN workers threaten fresh strike, give FG 4-day ultimatum

PHCN workers threaten fresh strike, give
FG 4-day ultimatum
on october 28, 2013 at 3:36 pm in news
Lagos – Over 2,000 workers of the Power Holding
Company of Nigeria (PHCN) on Monday embarked
on protest over the delay in payment of severance
benefits to about  55 per cent of the workforce.
The workers, under the aegis of the National Union
of Electrical Employees (NUEE), staged the protest
at the Eko and Ikeja Electricity Distribution
Companies and threatened to commence indefinite
strike on Nov. 1.
“The reports reaching the union is that majority of
banks cannot give financial backing to the schedule
sent to them by the Federal Government.
“This means that government does not have
money,’’ Mr Adeleke Ibrahim, the Chairman of Lagos
Chapter of NUEE, who led the protest, told
reporters.
The union official said that if the workers’
entitlements were not paid by the end of October,
the entire workforce of PHCN in all the 36 states
would embark on indefinite strike.
Ibrahim said that the union was not against
privatisation of the company, “but government
should pay all workers’ entitlements before the new
owners will commence operation’’.
He appealed to government to ensure that all the
agreements it signed with the workers were met to
avert the strike.
Ibrahim said that some of the issues in contention
included non-payment of retirement savings to
pension fund administrators and non-remittance of
dues of two per cent deducted from workers’
salaries to the unions.
Others are non-payment of benefits of retirees who
disengaged in 2011 and non-regularisation of
service of some casual workers.
NAN reports that the workers, who carried placards
with different inscriptions, locked the gates to the
two offices and prevented people from entering the
premises. (NAN)