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44 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020<br />
08052202308 (sms only)<br />
Rumble in Power sector as unions fight over membership<br />
•SSAEAC accuses NUEE of poaching, seeks sharing of union dues<br />
•You're amorphous, mischievous, NUEE fires back<br />
TWO of the unions in the na<br />
tion’s Power sector; the National<br />
Union of Electricity Employees,<br />
NUEE, and its Senior<br />
Staff Association of Electricity<br />
and Allied Companies, SSAE-<br />
AC, are at each other throat over<br />
membership.<br />
Vanguard investigation revealed<br />
that the fight over membership<br />
has been on for sometimes<br />
now and that the leadership<br />
of the SSAEAC has taken<br />
NUEE to National Industrial<br />
Court, NIC, accusing the former<br />
of poaching.<br />
According to Vanguard’s<br />
checks, the matter comes up later<br />
in February.<br />
Investigations revealed that<br />
while the matter is pending,<br />
SSAEAC has also petitioned the<br />
Ministry of Labour and Employment,<br />
complaining over the<br />
same issue of poaching and<br />
begging the ministry to intervene.<br />
The feud got to a boiling point<br />
during NUEE’s delegates’ conference<br />
on December 19, 2019,<br />
where the President-General of<br />
SSAEAC, Chris Okonkwo was<br />
booed by some members of<br />
NUEE over his alleged uncomplimentary<br />
role in the nationwide<br />
strike by NUEE on December<br />
10, 2019.<br />
Okonkwo was to later same<br />
day at a briefing, among others,<br />
declared the NUEE’ strike<br />
illegal and insisted that NUEE<br />
was poaching SSAEAC members.<br />
Vanguard gathered that<br />
ahead of the planned strike by<br />
NUEE, it wrote to SSAEAC on<br />
the need to join hand to prosecute<br />
the planned strike since the<br />
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige at a bilateral session with the<br />
Director General of the ILO, Mr. Guy Ryder by the sidelines on the on-going conference, entitled,<br />
“Taking Next Steps; Ending Child Labour by 2020 Conference in Leiden, Netherlands.<br />
The International Labour<br />
Organisation, ILO, has<br />
declared that Nigeria is key<br />
in eliminating child labour, trafficking<br />
and slavery in Africa<br />
as she is a pathfinder country in<br />
8.7 Alliance against modern slavery.<br />
The Director General of the ILO<br />
Mr. Guy Ryder made the declaration<br />
at a high level bilateral<br />
meeting with the Minister of Labour<br />
and Employment, Senator<br />
Chris Ngige by the sidelines<br />
of the on-going conference, entitled<br />
“Taking Next Steps; Ending<br />
Child Labour by 2025,” taking<br />
place in Leiden, Netherlands.<br />
While commending Nigeria for<br />
her untiring efforts, Mr. Ryder<br />
said “Africa being in the conference<br />
is extremely important”,<br />
noting that the bilateral forum<br />
was to discuss the country’s efforts,<br />
peculiar challenges and<br />
sort out areas of cooperation in<br />
order to bolster Nigeria’s capacity<br />
at winning the battle against<br />
modern slavery.<br />
In his response, the Minister<br />
catalogued the efforts of the Federal<br />
Government, remarking the<br />
domestication of the ILO Conventions<br />
138 and 182 on the<br />
Minimum Age and Worst Forms<br />
of Child Labour and the enactment<br />
of the Child Rights Acts<br />
of 2003, to consolidate all the existing<br />
laws on the fundamental<br />
rights of children.<br />
Ngige informed the Director<br />
General of the policy document<br />
approved by the Federal Executive<br />
Council on National Policy<br />
on Child Labour , National<br />
Action Plan for the Elimination<br />
of Child Labour as well as the<br />
comprehensive list of activities<br />
amounting to Hazardous Child<br />
Labour.<br />
He further said the National<br />
Social Investment Programme<br />
was designed to tackle poverty,<br />
boost the enrolment of children<br />
in schools through a home<br />
grown school feeding programme<br />
and stem the tide of<br />
unemployment among youths<br />
vulnerable to modern slavery.<br />
The Minister argued that central<br />
to the raging social problem<br />
was poverty, hence, asked<br />
that international cooperation be<br />
focused on assistance to the education<br />
of the deprived child, institutionalization<br />
of the social<br />
welfare programmes to em-<br />
Nigeria key to ending Child Labour in Africa<br />
— ILO<br />
power poor parents and provision<br />
of logistics for mass mobilization<br />
against child labour .<br />
“We will need assistance to site<br />
special schools in the mining<br />
fields of Zamfara, Niger, Katsina,<br />
Nasarawa and Plateau<br />
States, in the cocoa plantations<br />
of Ondo, Ekiti, Osun,<br />
Abia as well as in the palm oil<br />
farms of Imo, Abia , Cross<br />
River, Anambra, Edo among others<br />
where poverty has taken<br />
children away from schools,”<br />
Ngige pleaded with the ILO<br />
Director General .<br />
On anti-labour practices such<br />
as casualization, insufficient<br />
paid work, working-poor among<br />
others, the Minister said the<br />
Ministry’s strategy was to sensitize<br />
all the social partners to<br />
their responsibilities, citing the<br />
pressure on Nigeria Employers<br />
Consultative Association<br />
(NECA) to expand its activities<br />
to all the states of the federation<br />
to net in dispersed private sector<br />
groups and ease accountability<br />
to labour standards. He further<br />
stated the Ministry was<br />
tackling the recent unilateral<br />
declaration of redundancy by<br />
some banks.<br />
issues in contention affected all<br />
workers in the sector.<br />
SSAEAC letter to NUEE<br />
In its reply to NUEE’s letter,<br />
SSAEAC wrote among others,<br />
“We in SSAEAC commend your<br />
desire for united trade unions<br />
(SSAEAC and NUEE) action,<br />
to redress the lingering decadence<br />
in the power sector. Our<br />
coordinated and concerted effort<br />
and will most certainly yield<br />
better result, hope and trust<br />
among our teeming members.<br />
As we commend your initiative,<br />
we have the following concerns<br />
and observations which if taken<br />
up will end the seeming<br />
unnecessary tension/division<br />
between our Unions:<br />
(1.) In the past, specifically by<br />
our letter on planned action on<br />
Trade Dispute against TCN in<br />
August 2019 and another of 27th<br />
January 2019,both being on<br />
anti-Labour actions against our<br />
Union (SSAEAC), your Union<br />
interfered with it despite our<br />
soliciting for cooperation. We<br />
ask why your union acted as<br />
such despite notice on matters<br />
that affected our union. We never<br />
meddled in your union matter<br />
if notified ahead. We think<br />
that such cooperation issues<br />
between SSAEAC and NUEE<br />
need to be resolved to enable<br />
us work as a team against our<br />
common enemies.<br />
(2.) Issues raised in your letter<br />
to the Minister, addressed<br />
the situation in the GenCos and<br />
DisCos without mentioning<br />
TCN. This suggests protection for<br />
the reckless and oppressive management<br />
of TCN. TCN workers<br />
have consequently been abused<br />
for two and half years now, which<br />
we have raised with your Union<br />
on some occasions. We are of the<br />
view that issues affecting workers<br />
in the Nigeria’s power sector must<br />
be addressed since it is out collective<br />
pain.<br />
(3.) Our disagreement in membership<br />
classification and earnings<br />
which is before the courts is still a<br />
source of conflict among our teeming<br />
officers in the field. We had<br />
approached your union to have<br />
negotiated settlement but were<br />
rebuffed. We believe that we have<br />
an opportunity now to resolve<br />
these issues and get a win-win<br />
solution in all the cases.<br />
In the above circumstance, we<br />
propose that urgent meeting of the<br />
leadership or nominees of the two<br />
unions be arranged to address the<br />
issues raised and chart ways forward<br />
for a unified labour movement<br />
in the Nigeria’s power sector.<br />
This is a sure way to achieve<br />
the goal stated in your letters. Imagine<br />
a situation where SSAEAC<br />
and NUEE face each enemy without<br />
being divided in interest.”<br />
NUEE’s letter to Ministry of<br />
Labour<br />
Besides, Vanguard gathered that<br />
SSAEAC equally petitioned the<br />
Ministry of Labour and Employment,<br />
complaining over NUEE’s<br />
alleged poaching of members and<br />
sought for intervention.<br />
Consequently, NUEE in a response<br />
to a letter of invitation from<br />
the ministry, said among others,<br />
“Please recall Minister Sir that the<br />
House of Representatives joined<br />
as parties to the issue on December<br />
12, 2019 and we are worried<br />
that you are trying to resuscitate<br />
this matter at this material time. On<br />
the reference to SSAEAC on this<br />
matter, SSAEAC is not our employers<br />
and cannot interfere with<br />
operations of NUEE.<br />
“We don’t want to believe that<br />
your Ministry is providing SSAE-<br />
AC with an extra leg to stand. It<br />
may interest you that we entered<br />
into series of correspondence with<br />
SSAEAC on this issue of 21 days<br />
ultimatum and part of the reasons<br />
they backed out is because of court<br />
cases we are having with them.<br />
Consequently, SSAEAC can’t be<br />
rushing to your office for reconciliation<br />
when they are already in<br />
court. We will not like to meet with<br />
SSAEAC with any pretence of reconciliation<br />
especially with pendency<br />
of cases in court against us.<br />
“Besides, we will not meet with<br />
SSAEAC with headship of a General<br />
Manager in place in SSAE-<br />
AC; unless he is representing the<br />
Managing Director TCN in such<br />
a meeting. We are surprised that<br />
you are mentioning other Industrial<br />
Relations matters when you<br />
had earlier delved into jurisdiction<br />
scope of the Union by trying to<br />
award membership to SSAEAC<br />
without consulting us.<br />
“You will also recall that a response<br />
to this letter which we also<br />
forwarded to your office is yet to<br />
receive attention. This development<br />
smells of bias and partianship<br />
on the side of your ministry.<br />
All these issues are already pending<br />
in the Courts and will be subjudice<br />
if your office will be adjudicating<br />
on some of the issues which<br />
SSAEAC had taken to the Courts.<br />
This bias manifested further in<br />
the erroneous reference to our<br />
Union as a junior Staff Union, a<br />
reference you had earlier made in<br />
your letter to SSAEAC contrary to<br />
position of the law.<br />
Please note that some Union’s<br />
were never registered as Junior<br />
Staff Unions example Nurses &<br />
Mid Wife, Nigeria Union of Journalists,<br />
NUJ, National Union of Local<br />
Government Employees,<br />
NULGE, Medical & Health Workers<br />
Union of Nigeria, National<br />
Union of Electricity Employees<br />
NUEE, etc.<br />
These Unions organise both Junior<br />
and senior Employees, based<br />
on their professional nature even<br />
though the Ministry erroneously<br />
registered SSAEAC which was a<br />
branch of SSASGOG.
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