By Victor Ahiuma-Young
ORGANISED Labour in the nation’s electricity industry has called on the government to address the issue of over ten thousand (10,000) casual/contract workers in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, among others, in the interest of industrial peace.

The workers, under the aegis of National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), which on Monday, suspended a planned strike over non-payment of monetisation benefits, balance of 150 percent wage increase and the issue of the casual workers, said it was very embarrassing that PHCN had such a huge number of casual workers.

President-General of SSAEAC, Engr. Bede Opara, said several agreements reached with government over the issue had been reneged by the government and declared that the issue of the casual/contract workers would definitely cause industrial unrest in the industry.

According to him: “We gave ultimatum to the Federal Government over staff welfare, first was on arrears on monetisation, second item was balance on negotiated 150% salary and the third one is the issue of casualisation in the industry.

These issues have been on and by April 2009, the government pleaded that the money would be captured and be paid in 2010 budget and the budget came, and nothing happened and based on that we gave an ultimatum that expired on May 16, 2010. And by May 17, 2010 they called a meeting and we reached an agreement signed by government, PHCN management and the unions that, within four weeks, verification and payment would be concluded and we waited for the pay slips for four weeks, no payment was made.

“We are equally aware that other issues of balance of 137% were not even addressed and the issue of casualisation of over 10,000 Nigerians that have worked in the sector, some 6 years and some 7 years with salaries ranging from N5,000 to N10, 0000. Most  of these casual/contract workers are graduates. Their issue must be addressed. We feel  that there is need to tell Nigerians what is going on.

But what we are saying is that beside the issue of monetisation, what about other issues that have to do with casualisation and the balance of salary?

“We felt that the Government is treating us with some level of levity It is certain that if we have seen serious commitment on the side of Government.

The government must address the issue of the casual/contract workers if it wants industrial peace in the sector .We have been discussing all these issues with  the management and government and agreement was signed since 2003.  I can tell you that,  we are losing credibility on the side of our members.

From the level of tolerance we have shown and  the ways things are going, this issue must be addressed because  we are finding it difficult to explain to our members why this practice still persist in the sector. I can tell you that this may cause more problems for the union leaders than the problems on ground and so, if Government comes up with more commitments, we would then know what to tell our members.”