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BimbolaOyesola, [email protected]
The Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) has warned the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) of impending industrial crisis if the company fails to remit over N29 million wiitheld check-off dues.
In a letter to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, which was jointly signed by the president, Chris Okonkwo, and the general secretary, Abubakar Dubagari, the union noted that the outstanding dues ought to have been paid by the end of December.
“Still pursuing the option of peaceful resolution of the dispute, we hereby request that urgent necessary steps be taken in this new year, considering that this has been overly delayed,” the letter read.
The letter, titled ‘Re: Authorization to resume remittance of SSAEAC check-off dues into their respective accounts – Notice of resumption of action,” recalled that it was a follow-up on the earlier agreement that came out of two meetings with the management in October and November, respectively.
“The two meetings acknowledged the issues in contention between our union and the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria and gave directive for restoration of the illegally withheld check-off dues.
“The last meeting gave TCN up to December 2019 to show evidence of full remittance of the full amount, as a prelude to delving into the other issues in the trade dispute. Recall that our tendered record showed outstanding sum of N 29,234,716,60 from TCN to SSAEAC,” the union said.
The union said it counted on the minister’s urgent action to avert recourse to the action it took on previous two occasions.
Okonkwo, however, said the leadership of the union would use all legal options available to the union to ensure that the management of TCN paid all the outstanding dues.
He also stated that the union could not understand why the TCN management was still holding onto the check-off dues after it had given the assurance in the presence of all the stakeholders that it would pay up.
He explained that the management of TCN had earlier suspended remittance of the check-off dues to the union, adding that it was resumed after several agitations: “In actual fact, it is illegal for the management to have suspended payment of check-off dues deducted from our members to the union. Now that the management has commenced payment, we want the outstanding to be paid. The money was supposed to have been paid in December and yet we are still expecting, which means we will not be responsible for any action that we decide to take against them to ensure compliance.”
