Mr Bede Opara, President, Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), on Monday assured PHCN workers that all outstanding labour issues would be settled before the entity was privatised.
Speaking to journalists in Lagos following last Friday’s stakeholders’ meeting on PHCN’s imminent privatisation, Opara said that government and labour had reached 85 per cent agreement on the issues.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government, SSAEAC and National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) met on Feb. 24 in Abuja to resolve the labour issues before finalizing reforms in the power sector.
“The plans by the government to privatise PHCN as part of its power sector reforms have reached over 85 per cent.
“The next meeting is expected to hold between April 16 and April 19 to conclude on the resolutions reached before winding down the corporate headquarters of PHCN,’’ Opara said.
He said that after the meeting on Feb. 24, an implementing monitoring committee was set up to ensure across the board payment of 50 per cent salary increase to PHCN workers by the end of February 2012.
He said that the meeting also agreed that the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) would conclude all issues relating to biometric exercise and the verification of all workers.
“All casual workers who have been verified and cleared will be issued letters of employment and regularized in conformity with earlier agreement by March 12, 2012,’’ he said.
He, howeve,r said that no agreement was reached on the 120 per cent arrears for pensioners and the implementation of 53 per cent wage increase for workers.
“We also did not reach any agreement on the demand of the union for across the board implementation of the National Minimum Wage Act as the government team maintained that the Act applies to only workers who earn less than N18,000 per month,” Opara said.
He said that the meeting failed to discuss the 4, 000 workers retired in 2000, because there was an ongoing litigation on the issue, adding that the two parties were advised to consider an out-of-court settlement.
Opara noted that stakeholders at the meeting agreed to refrain from taking any action that could jeopardize the ongoing negotiations, till the next meeting.
According to Opara, the BPE would conclude the biometric verification exercise for pensioners on or before July 31, 2012. (NAN)
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