Joseph Bakare
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has lamented incessant strikes by workers in the electricity sector.
Fashola disclosed that such actions has resulted in huge revenue losses to the sector as about N7.734 billion was lost between 2014 and 2016 alone.
The minister who spoke at the third triennial delegate conference of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) in Abuja, appealed to the workers to review their resistance to new private investors in the sector, as well as their views of the investors as exploitative.
He said a snap survey of strikes in the electricity sector and its affiliations which he conducted showed that between April 2014 and March 2016, strikes embarked upon by electricity workers union in the country had resulted in up to N7.734 billion revenue loss to the sector.
He said, “Can an employee who caused the employer such financial losses in all good conscience expect improved welfare packages or industrial peace? Or have the employees taken over from the employer”.
Also the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to consider ongoing negotiations on the recently introduced electricity tariff before embarking on a nationwide strike.
NLC had last Wednesday threatened to declare a one-day nationwide strike against the government in protest against electricity tariff hike and fuel scarcity in the country, but Ngige noted that such action would be unnecessary because the National Assembly had already taken up the issue.
Speaking on other outstanding labour issues in the sector, he said: “If there is an agreement that the whole purpose of this relationship is that your employer will earn profit as a result of what we the workers produce and that we will earn our wages based on what has been agreed, why should there really be a dispute, whys should we continue these disagreements?
Ngige said: “The dispute over the increment in electricity tariff is right before the National Assembly and it is only right that as law abiding social partners, that all parties afford the National Assembly to arbitrate.
The chairman of NLC is not here but this occasion offers a crucial avenue for me to state government’s position on this hot button issue.”
He urged SSAEAC to be committed to a productive change and the inculcation of sanity in the conduct of government business and hoped that the change mantra would instill discipline in the entire citizenry of Nigeria and promote transparency, accountability and other good governance principles.
Ngige maintained that the dialectical relationship between capitalism and labour should be played down and minimised in order to enable a viable environment for sustainable development and growth of the nation devoid of industrial actions.