By Victor Ahiuma-Young
THE nation can now heave a sigh of relief as the striking workers of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, Thursday called off their industrial action that threw the entire country into darkness.

This came even as organised labour called for withdrawal of armed soldiers from PHCN installations to ensure industrial peace, saying “we have not been working with the military and their presence in our work place remains unacceptable.”

Similarly, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has blamed the government for the industrial action, noting that Congress “is pained that once more the nation has been subjected to an avoidable discomfort, owing to human deficiency in our government agencies.”

The suspension of the industrial action followed an agreement leaders of the workers reached with the Federal Government represented by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu and Minister of State for Power, Mr. Nuhu Wya, with assurance that the 20,000 verified staff would be paid their monetisation arrears yesterday.

However, Vanguard, gathered that normal electricity supply  would not return to  the country until today, though engineers were said to be striving hard to bring the power stations back on stream.

The workers under the umbrella of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE and its Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, SSEAC, who were protesting unpaid monetisation arrears that accumulated since 2003, had shut down all power stations across the country to drive home their agitation.

Vanguard gathered that parties reached agreement around 2 am yesterday after about 10 hours  meeting at the Yaba secretariat of NUEE.

Agreement reached at the end of the meeting read: “ At the end of the deliberations, it was agreed as follows:  That 20,000 members of staff of PHCN verified shall be paid by August 26, 2010. That payment to be completed within one week. To review and address problem areas if any in the second week. That the on-going strike action by members of the two Unions shall be called off by 9.00 am, August, 26, 2010.”

Unions direct workers to resume duties

Meanwhile, the two unions had sent a circular to the workers, informing them about the suspension of the industrial action and directing them to resume normal duties.

The circular read: “You will recalled that Government and PHCN failed to work in tandem with the agreement on prompt payment of monetization arrears to eligible employees. The Union in reaction to this ugly development called for industrial action which was observed with total compliance. It has therefore become necessary to commend all our members for their courage in this struggle to restore the dignity of PHCN workers.

This action prompted another round of meeting with Government and PHCN on August 25, 2010 to resolve the imbroglio. Consequently, Management is to pay 20,000 workers by August 26, 2010 while the remaining staff will be paid within a week. While hoping that Government and PHCN will operate within the ambit of this collective agreement towards ensuring industrial peace and harmony, members are hereby informed that the strike action has been suspended effective August 26, 2010.

Labour kicks against military presence at PHCN’s installations

However, there are indications that industrial peace may be breached soon over alleged deployment of troops to power installations across the country, which organised labour said is a threat to industrial peace.

A statement by the General Secretary of NUEE, Comrade Joe Ajaero, read in part:

“If our pressing home, our demand has spelt crisis in the workplace that warrants Government to deploy troops to our installations; then there is dearth of logical allusions in our leadership class.  May be, the troops will as well be deployed to Aso Rock as there are intrigues and socio-political misgivings at play.

We demand therefore that although some levels of Agreements were reached in order to call off the Strike Action, the troops already deployed to our installations should be withdrawn immediately as a panacea for further engagement. We cannot co-habit with the Military in the workplace for their presence will not add value to our operations. Until these troops are withdrawn, we cannot order otherwise.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has blamed the Federal Government for the strike, which it said was completely avoidable.

NLC in a statement by its President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said: “NLC is pained that once more the nation has been subjected to an avoidable discomfort, owing to Human Resource Management deficiency in our government agencies. The strike by the PHCN workers which could have been avoided, must  be placed on the lack of depth and capacity in human resource management components of agencies of government.

t have been saddled with the new thinking of government in service delivery. Management Teams of these new government vehicles for service provision are constantly peopled by so called technical expertise with no thought being spared for human resource management expertise nor component, even though it is common knowledge that human beings albeit Nigerian workers are the tools that will be used to achieve whatever lofty directive might be on paper on computer slide presentation.”

“The sad aspect of this situation is that even where indigenous technical experts are at the driving wheel, the impression given is still that of the workforce being more of a slave force. We therefore urge for a conscious and careful effort to bring back to the care of formulation and execution of the mandate of these new government agencies, the critical concerns of the workforce.

It is on this note that we call on Mr. President to cause the proper directives to go to the PHCN management and his advisory Council on Power to do the needful by addressing the outstanding Labour issues in the Power Sector reform process.

The time to give prime place to Labour relations issues in the march to achieving the set goals of the reform is now, further delay is only postponing the doom that is to follow such informed approach to the sector’s repositioning. A system that encourages casualisation of workers right under the watch of Mr. President must be decried.”