Mkpoikana Udoma 16 June 2014, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – Organised labour has picketed the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHED, over non-compliance with an agreement reached on staff welfare.
Chairman of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Employee Union in Rivers State, Mr. Henry Jumbo, who spoke with SweetCrudeReports in Port Harcourt, said labour would continue picketing the company until a resolution is reached between them and the company’s management on the implementation of the agreement.
According to him, “We want an opportunity to dialogue with the management of PHED over the agreement we had earlier reached with them, for them to help reach the Federal Government on how they will handle the issue of staff welfare in the state”.
Mr. Jumbo lamented the increase in the issue of casual staff in the power sector, describing it as a form of underemployment which employers of labour had cashed in, in a bid to exploit desperate job seekers.
Decrying the non-payment of gratuity for retired workers in the power company, he said, “You know, up till now some staffs are yet to be paid their full pay-off and there is a lot of casualization going on in the Power Ministry and all those that are enshrined in the agreement which Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, is yet to fulfill. The protest started yesterday and we are intending to stay for as long as when we will have the opportunity to dialogue with the management of PHED” he said.
