By Victor Ahiuma-Young
LAGOS—WORKERS of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, under the aegis of National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, weekend, refuted media report credited to the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, that he had met with them, saying, “we were not invited either formally or informally to any meeting and we challenge the convener to prove otherwise.”

In a statement by the workers through their General Secretary, Mr. Joe Ajaero, they argued that it came to their notice through newspapers’ publications that a meeting was purportedly held on January 31, 2010 with the in-house unions in PHCN by the taskforce under the chairmanship of the Labour Minister.

According to the statement, “as a union that controls over 80 percent of the workforce in the industry, we make bold to say that we are not aware of such meeting.

“We were not invited either formally or informally to the meeting and we challenge the convener to prove us otherwise. As far as we are concerned, this meeting is of no effect since we were excluded.

“No meaningful negotiation could have taken place in a meeting that was not all-embracing, which of course is an aberration of industrial relation ethics.

Members are therefore urged to disregard any information culminating from the purported meeting and have firm belief that concrete and conscious effort are being made to fight for the inalienable rights of every worker in the industry. For the avoidance of doubt, technocrats in the Labour Ministry ought to know that severance package can only be agreed on from the process of negotiation, involving all parties. We assure you that we shall not rest on oars until all negotiated agreements are implemented and members’ interest fully taken care of.”