PHCN WORKERS WARN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT...

Employees of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) warned the federal government against secretly handing over the assets of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to private investors without the conclusion of payment of workers entitlements.Speaking under the umbrella of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), the union threatened to shut down the industry should the investors go ahead to take over on paper without allowing the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and government to conclusively sort out the outstanding labour issues with the workers.This, it stated, would be assumed that investors have equally accepted to pay the outstanding liabilities to the workers.The union in a statement issued by its Secretary, Joe Ajaero, pointed out that members had shown enough patriotism and high level of understanding in the discourse and warned that it could no longer guarantee the safety of any investor, who may wish to dare the union.The statement read: “It has come to our notice that the federal government through the BPE has resolved to throw the power sector into turmoil by secretly handing over the sector on paper. We are also aware that all the Chief Executive Officers of the supposed unbundled companies of PHCN have been called to Abuja and directed to bring their letter-headed papers with a view to signing off on paper in favour of the investors. However, we wish to advise the investors not to fall into the trap set up by the BPE and government who were not able to conclusively clear the outstanding huddles in relation to outstanding labour issues with the workers“Should the investors go ahead to take over on paper without allowing the BPE and government to conclusively sort out the outstanding labour issues with the workers, it would be assumed that they (investors) have equally accepted to pay outstanding labour liabilities.