by crossriverwatch admin
The Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, Cross River Council on Wednesday (today) sealed the premises of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHEDC, in Calabar over the sack of 134 Workers inherited from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
Mr John Ushie, the state NLC Chairman said the action became necessary as management of the company has refused to abide by the agreement reached between labor and the Federal Government before the handover of the defunct PHCN to the power distribution companies.
Ushie said the company had refused to negotiate with labor over the matter and went ahead to sack 134 workers including union members without recourse to the agreement reached between labor and the government.
“In May, 2014, the NLC invited the company for negotiations but they refused to honor the invitation. We cannot fold our hands and watch workers being exploited.
“The rights of our workers are being infringed upon and we cannot sit down and watch that happen”, he said.
Ushie said that the picketing of PHEDC would continue throughout the South-South until the company meets their demand.
“There is nowhere in the World that an Organization takes over a business entity and wants to abolish trade Union activities in the company, we will continue to picket the company, it is our duty to defend the interests of the workers, ” he said.
He said that the NLC was out to correct some anomalies going-on in the PHEDC, pointing out that many of the workers were yet to get their severance allowance as promised by the electricity company.
The chairman said that the Nigerian law was against casualization of workers in whatever form.
In his reaction, Mr Fred Obi former Public Relations Officer of the defunct PHCN said that, he was affected by the retrenchment exercise carried out by the management of PHEDC.
“So, I cannot comment on behalf of the PHEDC for now, ‘’ Obi said.
follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch
Leave feedback about this