By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

ORGANISED Labour in the nation’s Power sector has accused the Power Ministry of deliberately refusing to submit to the Presidency the report by the Government appointed Chief negotiator, in the dispute between workers of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, and government, over employee’s terminal benefits ahead of the privatization of PHCN.

Under the umbrella of Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, SSAEAC, labour claimed the report had not left the Ministry one month after the Chief Negotiator/Conciliator, Hassan Sunmonu, submitted it to the Ministry.

SSAEAC alleged that some powerful individuals in the ministry were frustrating peaceful resolution of labour issues in the sector even when President Goodluck Jonathan was desirous of settling the workers liabilities.

President-General of SSAEAC, Bede Opara, and Engineer, who spoke in Lagos, wondered why the ministry was preventing the presidency from seeing the report given the fact that it was the federal government itself that set up the Committee in the first place.

According to him, the presidency should be more inclined to the implementation of the recommendations of Sunmonu since it is committed to put the interest of the sector above any personal interest.

The attempt to shield the report from the presidency, he pointed out may not be unconnected with the Sunmonu’s recommendation that gratuity should be paid in accordance with the extant PHCN conditions of service. The report, he explained is contrary to the views of government, which upheld that workers are entitled to pension and gratuity up to June 30, 2004 but thereafter the provisions of Pensions Reform Act 2004 would apply.

He warned that the ongoing privatisation by the government would be inconclusive should government fail to implement the recommendations of the report.

“Government set up a negotiation team led by the Chief Negotiator in the person of Hassan Sunmonu who was acclaimed a renowned labour leader in order to have credibility in the resolution of the industrial dispute in the power sector.

The negotiation lasted for 14 months and the Chief Negotiator recommended that gratuity be paid according to the condition of service which is not against the Pension Reform Act 2004. Why is it that the Secretary to the government of the federation and the president is blocked from seeing the report submitted by Sunmonu.

“We have information that the presidency is not aware of the recommendations.

The report was supposed to be presented to the Vice President but it was stopped at the ministry level. If Sambo was aware of the report then we will not be where we are today. We want to state categorically that as long as labour issues are not resolved, let no body think of success of the ongoing privatisation,” Opara added.

Continuing, Opara noted that the unions were no longer against the privatisation of PHCN but rather interested in making sure that the global best practices was strictly adhered to given the role that the sector will play in the development of the country.

He advised President Jonathan to put the national interest and the interest of the sector above every other interest if the ongoing reform programme must succeed.

The SSAEAC President-General maintained that labour was more concerned with the way and manner in which the biding processes were handled by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, lamenting that the process was flawed.

According to him, “We are no longer against the privatisation of PHCN but interested in making sure that the global best practices is strictly adhered to given the role that the sector will play in the development of the country.  We are concerned about this issue because people go into privatisation with various promises but at the end of the day the industry collapses. We are concerned about what is happening in the aviation sector which was privatized but today almost all the private airlines have shut down.”

“The president should consider that if the power sector priovatisation is carried out in that manner, what then we shall fall back to. We should look at the United States where there is over 250, 000 mega watts base power that is generated by the government  such that even if the private sector fails, the government will have something to fall back to. So the question then is what we shall fall back to if the private sector decides to frustrate the whole privatisation exercise.”