PHCN workers’ struggle continues after Nnaji

By JOKE KUJENYA 

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Until his resignation yesterday as Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji and workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) were daggers-drawn. The latest in their fight was over the Federal Government’s plan to privatise the behemoth, writes Assistant Editor (Investigations) JOKE KUJENYA

He was at a meeting between labour leaders and the Federal Government to resolve the logjam over the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

 But before the meeting adjourned, Prof. Barth Nnaji hurriedly left. 

 Hours later, it emerged that Nnaji’s era as Power Minister has come to an abrupt end. 

 President of  the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr Peter Esele,  who was at the Abuja meeting, said: 

“The meeting was inconclusive. Both parties were not able to state all their cases. We held a discussion and as at this moment, I do not think we have come to any conclusion. We are looking at meeting again tomorrow (today) at 4pm. We have made certain requests from PHCN management.

 “Government also made certain requests which we are hoping would be made available tomorrow (today) and that would help us to either move forward or to have a stalemate.

 “Again government made an offer and what they were talking about is that they want to pay 15 per cent from 2004 to 2012 while the other 25 per cent would be pre-pension Act reform.

 “But we are saying that the defined benefits scheme that was available should still remain in place. ''

 Nnaji’s colleague, Minister of Labour and Productivity Emeka Wogu, who was also at the meeting, said he would speak to the press today.

 The bid to privatise the PHCN and its attendant crisis will remain a major point of Nnaji’s era as power minister. 

His successor no doubt will inherit the crisis because the issues in contention remained unresolved before he bowed out. 

 The Zonal Organising Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Temple Iworima, told The Nation that the workers were against the unjust way Nnaji was handling their fate after PHCN’s privatisation. 

Iworima said: “We are not against privatisation. The government knows that we have not been opposed to privatising what rightly belongs to the government. PHCN is their own. Let them do what they like with it. And we do not have any problems with the Canadian contractors. You can see that none of us is disturbing the white men from doing what they had been invited to Nigeria to do. It is not their fault at all that they were brought into what should ordinarily be our in-house problems. But the government seems to enjoy exposing our domestic issues to the international world.

 “Our grouse is against the unjust way we are being severed. Our fear is that our lots will become like that of our other counterparts in the privatised NITEL and other organisations privatised by previous administrations. Please, go and look at the records, every company privatised in Nigeria ends up struggling for survival. In fact, they die outrightly and this is what our cry is based on.

 “So, we are saying that if you want to privatise, where does that leave us? Many of us have served for eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 15, 18, 22, 27 years and so on. Now with privatisation, are you just going to leave us in the cold or pay us through our ‘superannuation scheme’ which we all signed for in our letters of employment? Then, we were here when Power Minister Barth Nnaji gave a fiat order via a letter that our salaries should be slashed by seven-and-a-half per cent. We asked why, but no one is willing to offer us any explanation. That is after we have been contributing 23 per cent of our salaries to the ‘superannuation scheme’ since we got employed. Now, they are telling us that they can’t find the money.

  “Our other point of contention is that, even if the government wants to sell the PHCN with assets and liabilities in today’s economy, should it be at N220 billion? That’s a gross under-value of the entire assets. Even if they say that the worth cannot be rated at the same value it was several years ago, I bet you, it is still a far cry from what it would be sold, if properly valued.”

 Speaking for Nnaji, his Special Adviser (Media), Mr. Anikwe Ogbuagu said the whole issue had generated much controversy because there had been a lot of misinformation all over the place.

 Ogbuagu said: “According to the government’s directive, letters were written to them each and calculations were given for individual persons to be paid. Letters were written and signed by the Managing Director of PHCN, Mr. Hussein Labo, accompanied by the computation of how much each person was to be sent off with. And these letters are to be taken away by each staff to study for about a week and then, return it to express their views, whether they agree with the spelt out terms or not.

 “But , instead of doing this patiently, they decided to embark on the opposition battles. What happened is that, and I will like to start with the workers. Ordinarily, of about 60, 000 PHCN workforce, the organisation has far more support staff than the actual technical people needed. And why is this so? In the past, each time the PHCN advertises for qualified engineers, the ‘powers that be’ then would end up employing those who are not even near the required qualifications. And that is why you see that the agency suffers lack of qualified engineers. In fact, that is one of the reasons that the minister approved the creation of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to hire 1,000 engineers. That was how bad the situation was. But I won’t heap the blame on the workers. They did not employ themselves.

 “But the real problem with them is that when the time came for their appointments to be professionally clarified, which is what privatisation is all about... And this is to be determined, one by their letters of engagement, in which case you are supposed to pay them terminal benefits. And the way it works is that all the workers will be severed, everyone of them, including their management staff. But they will be paid their dues. And how much they are paid in gratuity is based on the number of years each of them has served. And the computation has been done. The highest that one severed staff will be paid is N38m. And some of those who were employed six months ago would be given about N500, 000 each upwards. So their claims of a security man who has served about 11 years being paid a mere N85, 000 is not true. What every single member of staff is going to be paid on being severed from the services of the PHCN is clearly stated on the schedule prepared from the office of the Power  Minister.

 “They have not even bothered to ask where the money is coming from. Before 2004, they were operating what they called ‘superannuation scheme’ are managed by the management of the PHCN in conjunction with the leadership of their unions. And it is a system in which the workers are said to be contributing about 25 per cent of their basic salaries. And so, when they are to leave, their contributions would have amounted to a lot of money. But for some reasons, this money was not being deducted. But every year, when people were to go off working, there would be some ‘magical’ calculations done and whoever was going would still be paid what he or she was thought to be entitled to. Now in-between, government changed the rules in 2004 when the Pension Reform Act (PRA) was signed into law. 

 “The Pension Commission wrote series of letters to PHCN asking them to come so the ‘superannuation scheme’ can be dropped for the proper pension scheme. So during their negotiations, they insisted that their terminal benefits should still be based on the ‘superannuation scheme’. Government said that if they agreed to that, it means that they do not have any liability on this matter. The next thing seen was that they, the PHCN, went to their accounts and discovered that all they had in the treasure was just N3billion.

 “They were said to have asked their management what happened to all the money that they thought they had saved. But they were allegedly told not to worry as the management knew how to get the money available whenever it was needed. It was said that some of them even raised dust about the management’s claims to have been deducting 25 per cent of their salaries for several years, and demanded to know where the money was kept. And that was the point that government found that it had been in trouble for so long without really knowing it. So, the Power Minister sought the counsel of Mr. President on how to resolve the problem. The President, it was noted, said it wasn’t the fault of the workers but the management and unions they had trusted for so long. And he was said to have added that the workers, who all have put it years of service into the PHCN, should in no way be punished. 

 “Government then decided that from June 2004 to June 2012, whatever was due to each of them based on their contributions under the PRA, which was computed to be at N80billion, should be paid. This was then presented by the Energy Minister during one of their Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings. This was promptly approved and the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, released the money. All these are on the records. And it is from this money that they did not contribute at all they would be paid their dues.”

The situation degenerated to warning strikes by workers in PHCN formations.  In Minna, Niger State, members of staff of the Shiroro Hydropower Station, which has the capacity of 600 megawatts, staged a protest to resist the government’s handling over of their severance benefits. They accused the Federal Government of insincerity and not honouring the conditions of service. They bore placards with messages such as: “Don’t short-change us, pay us our full benefit”, “Barth Nnaji, Tell Nigerians the truth about PHCN”, “Minister of Power, treat us with dignity”.

 In Lagos, employees of PHCN also went on strike. The workers blocked the gates of the PHCN offices in Lagos and the headquarters in Marina. They prevented the management, workers and customers from gaining access to the premises.

As at the time Nnaji resigned yesterday, the issues remain unresolved and workers were strategising on how to get government to listen to them. Now that the minister is gone, their battle continues with his yet-to-be known successor. The struggle continues. 

SOURCE: 29 August 2012.