PHCN rules out workers’ strike

The Management of Power Holding Company of Nigeria on Saturday assured members of the public that its workers would not be embarking on strike on Wednesday as has been speculated in some quarters.

Speaking during a media parley with journalists in Abuja, the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. H.S Labo, explained that it had scheduled a meeting with the leadership of its workers‘ unions for Wednesday where it would continue negotiations on their welfare package.

On Friday, PHCN workers, under the aegis of Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies and the National Union of Electricity Employees, organised prayer sessions across their stations nationwide, but the action degenerated into the blockade of the entrance to their offices.

The workers are demanding for between 150 and 250 per cent increase in their salaries, claiming that the last salary increase was effected in year 2000.

It was learnt that the management proposed a five per cent increase, which the workers rejected outrightly.

A fresh negotiation was called for Wednesday, but some media reported that the workers could declare a strike on that day if their requests were not agreed to by the management of PHCN.

But in an interview with our correspondent, Labo ruled out the possibility of the workers embarking on strike, stressing that they were responsible and willing to continue with the ongoing negotiations.

According to him, the PHCN management is willing to engage the workers in meaningful negotiations on an improved welfare package.

He admitted that the last negotiated salary increase between the management and workers was in 2000, but added that PHCN management implemented the general 15 per cent salary increase for public servants which the former President Olusegun Obasanjo approved some years ago.

Labo explained that the revenue stream of the utility company was open to the workers as they carried out all the functions including generation, transmission, distribution and revenue collection.

He said, ”We cannot hide any facts from them because it is the same workers that collect the money. They know how much they collect. They are the ones who run the power stations, they run the transmission stations as well as the distribution stations.

All we do at corporate headquarters is to collate the facts and say this is how far we can go.”

Although Labo was not forthcoming, he, however, said any increase in salary would have to be sustainable, bearing in mind the production costs.

He said, ”What we are going to agree on must be sustainable.”