Worried by the incessant unrest and crises over the operations of the country’s power sector, the Ministry of Labour and Employment has initiated a process to develop operational guidelines for the sector.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Yerima Peter Tarfa, made this known on Monday at the opening of a One-Day Interactive Session (Phase 1)
Tarfa said the Guideline would moderate the activities of the stakeholders for the purpose of ensuring enabling and harmonious industrial relations in that sector for effective and efficient service delivery.
He said that the call for an Operational Guideline was informed by the need to tackle the numerous labour crises bedeviling the Sector in recent times, and which inevitably affect the economy adversely.
Represented by Director, Trade Union Services and Industrial Relations (TUSIR), Omoabie Akpan (Mrs), Tarfa stated that these crises arose from the unhealthy relationship among the various stakeholders in the sector.
According to him, the conflicts from among the stakeholders “oftentimes result in a lot of crises, trade disputes, strikes, and their attendant man-hour losses brought about by the occasional shutdown of the National Grid resulting to the devastation of the national economy.”
He disclosed that the labour crises in the Power sector in recent times had mostly been due to “the unbundling of the Power Sector and the subsequent privatisation, which led to the emergence of new players (stakeholders) such as the Power Generating and Distribution companies (GenCos and DisCos), and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).”
The Permanent Secretary explained that while these new stakeholders from a profit-oriented background into a purely service-based sector, grappled with a lot of operational challenges they were ill-prepared for, the regulators, on the other hand, worked to ensure the maintenance of standards, and protection of consumers’ interest.
“it is in view of these conflicts that the Ministry proposed the development of an Operational Guideline in that sector,” he said.
In attendance at the interactive session were relevant government agencies such as Ministry of Power, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET), GenCos, DisCos, and Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
