Tobias Sylvester
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige on Wednesday summoned an emergency meeting with the electricity workers who embarked on an indefinite strike over pending issues with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Electricity Workers Strike
A source said the minister invited the aggrieved workers under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) to a meeting which was held around 4 pm on Wednesday to resolve their grievances.
“The Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, has invited the electricity workers, who have shut down their services nationwide, for an urgent meeting in Abuja. The meeting will hold at 4 pm today,” the source told Punch.
The NUEE had directed its members to picket the offices of TCN on Tuesday, after which a strike action would commence on Wednesday, August 17.
The union in a notice by its general secretary, Joe Ajaero, had said the picketing was to challenge a directive by the TCN board that all principal managers in acting capacity upgrading to acting-general manager capacity must appear for a promotion interview.
The NUEE said the directive was in contravention of the workers’ conditions of service and career progression paths, adding that “it was unilaterally done without the relevant stakeholders”.
The group also complained about the failure of the authorities to pay the entitlement of former staff of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in December 2019.
KanyiDaily recalls that the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) had warned that the strike action which commenced today may lead to disruption of power supply to electricity consumers across the nation.
