Energy Commission of Nigeria Workers Call Off Strike

• Energy Commission of Nigeria Workers Call Off Strike

Workers of the Energy Commission of Nigeria workers have called off their one month-long industrial action, following the intervention of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige.

The ministry said the workers had been directed to resume work on Thursday (today) and allow the reappointed Director-General of the commission, Prof Eli-Jidere Bala, unfettered access to his office.

The spokesman for the ministry, Samuel Olowookere, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, explained that the workers agreed to call off their strike during a meeting.

“At a conciliatory meeting today (Wednesday) at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment, the union members who were led to the meeting by the President of the Trade Union Congress, Bobboi Kaigama, agreed to call off the strike in order to enable an equable settlement of all issues in conflict by a nine-man committee set up for the purpose,” he said.

According to the statement, the committee is to look into the remote and immediate causes of the problems in the commission, examine the grievances of the workers and make recommendations to prevent future occurrence.

Olowookere stated that the meeting also agreed that the recommendations of the committee would be religiously implemented within the next three months while also agreeing that “no worker shall be punished for their roles in the strike.”

He explained that the committee members were drawn from the Ministry of Labour and Employment (Chairman) Office of the Secretary of the Government to the Federation, Office of the Head of Civil Service, and Ministry of Science and Technology.

Others were from the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, management of the ECN, local union of workers in the commission, TUC and the committee’s secretary also from the ministry.