Protests as power firms sack ‘unproductive’ workers today

Thousands of power sector workers face a bleak feature from today (Wednesday) following the expiration of the six-month contract employment given to them by the new investors in the electricity and distribution companies.

The investors have insisted that unproductive workers inherited from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria by the successor firms will be thrown out of the system from today.

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Many of the investors, who chose to speak under the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said it was imperative for them to evaluate their human capital assets in order to identify the right competence and skill sets needed to ensure efficient service delivery to their customers.

As such, they insisted that unproductive workers would be disengaged on April 30, six months after they were contractually required by the Federal Government through the Bureau of Public Enterprises to retain them to run the power system.

But the workers, through the labour unions in the sector, are unhappy with the way the new owners of the electricity distribution and generation companies have allegedly handled them.

Led by the unions’ executives, the workers on Monday began protests in some locations across the country against alleged anti-labour practices adopted by the new investors.

On Tuesday, officials of the National Union of Electricity Employees, Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, Trade Union Congress and the Nigeria Labour Congress led the workers to picket some of the power firms.

Culled - Punch

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