Workers’ unions and power sector reforms
To date however, Nigeria is yet to record a single week of uninterrupted power. Worse, in the past few months, the country reached new lows in power generation, the usual reasons being incessant gas pipeline vandalism and the reported low water in the hydroelectric dams due to the dry season.As if that was not enough […]
To date however, Nigeria is yet to record a single week of uninterrupted power. Worse, in the past few months, the country reached new lows in power generation, the usual reasons being incessant gas pipeline vandalism and the reported low water in the hydroelectric dams due to the dry season.
As if that was not enough challenge, the negative role of the electricity union workers and their leaders in fostering a sense of helplessness in addressing the problem is beginning to come to light. The power sector reforms proved to be a windfall for virtually all of them, with more than two billion dollars (about 250 billion naira) paid to them as severance pay from the proceeds of privatisation of the Nigerian electric power industry. A single beneficiary got over 80 million naira as entitlement. The unions themselves got seven billion naira, representing two percent check off dues deducted from the unbundling of the public power utility.
In the last couple of weeks, workers of the electricity unions have been picketing successor distribution companies of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in several cities, disrupting other workers. The protesters claimed their action was against alleged delay in the payment of severance packages to a handful of their colleagues.
Of the 50,000 PHCN workers, more than 45,000 were paid off with nearly 400 billion naira. For the other 5,000, the government explained that there were issues such as irregular staff identification, duplication in staff numbers and names, lack of or irregular retirement savings account (RSA) personal identification and account numbers that had delayed the process. In some cases, the beneficiaries failed to sign or thumbprint their benefit statements or had inserted wrong passport photographs.
The veteran labour leader, Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, was designator as arbitrator in negotiations between the PHCN workers’ unions and the government that resulted in the agreement that both sides appeared to be happy with.
The agreement included a clause that about half of the workers would be disengaged immediately after payment, and the other half given a six-month contract pending the time the new companies are able to determine their human resource needs.
The unions’ tactics expose what has been suggested in the past, namely that they had been part of the problem in the power sector, hindering its reform and denying the nation the benefits of stable electricity. There is danger also that continuing in this action could scare away further investment in the sector and perpetuate the massive corruption in the industry.
The unions should desist from this destabilizing course. Unfortunately, union officials seem to be more concerned about their personal gains than the national goal of stable power supply. The new companies need time to fix decades of decay in the power sector; the least they want is meddling unions. The firms do need the expertise of some of the outgoing workers who have been trained and know the terrain. The Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) has, for example, extended the six-month contracts of the remaining workers by another two months. This is a template that the unions should negotiate for their members. The government should also hasten to conclude the payment of the remaining workers that are yet to get their severance benefits.
To make themselves attractive to the new companies that may require their services soon, the defunct PHCN workers would be wise to support what is of benefit to them and to the nation in both the short and long terms, and not seek to sabotage the process, in which case all the parties lose.