=NATIONAL NEWS= Energy Minister Settles NPA Workers’ Industrial Action Following the unexpected industrial action undertaken by staff of National Power Authority (NPA), the Energy Minister, Oluniyi Robbin-Coker has been hailed by not only the NPA Management but also by staff of the National Power Authority for a professional, diligent and neutral manner in which he handled the impasse between the Management and staff of one of the most important utility (electricity) in the country. On his arrival to the office on Friday 18th October, 2013, the Minister Oluniyi Robbin-Coker, like all other customers around the Electricity Building found himself sandwiched by a mammoth crowd of NPA workers from all the stations around the city gathered at the Headquarter of the Electricity House in Freetown, protesting over certain burning issues relating to staff welfare which Management had failed to address for far too long. This crowd occupied the entire upper Percival Street, spilling over onto Siaka Stevens Street; thus making it almost impossible for customers of the day and top Senior Management officials to access the building. The passionate Minister of Energy, Oluniyi Robbin-Coker did not waste any time but intervened by calling on the then desperate President of the NPA Senior Staff Association - Mr. Alimamy Max Bangura and his executive members to give him audience. In a brief and spectacular leadership style, Minister Robbin-Coker was able to captivate the emotions of the aggrieved NPA staff by telling them that he had already invited the Executive of the NPA Staff Association to his office. This calmed down the staff who shouted “We will wait! We will wait here to hear from our Executive after the meeting with the minister”. In the Minister’s office, the Executive members of the NPA Senior Staff Association highlighted all the issues/concerns that led to the action taken in the morning; adding that, they could not consider it to be a demonstration/strike as there was no notification to Management. The President of the NPA Senior Staff Association (Max Bangura) explained that the action taken was to force the NPA management which has been a ‘toothless bull dog’ to the Board of Directors. This, he said, means that even the Management’s role has been usurped by the Board to the detriment of the workers and customers in general. The concerns raised were – Late payment of salaries, the manner of paying rent allowance, the non existence of workers’ hand book/guidelines on duty, inadequate benefit especially to senior staff, default medical facility, promotion, performance appraisal process, safety gears for workers etc. These concerns were discussed first by the Minister, his Deputy (Mr. Martin Bash-Kamara); Permanent Secretary (Alhaji Bannie Ellah-Seisay), M&E expert (Mr. Madieu Jalloh) and other staff members and the Executive of the NPA Senior Staff Association. The Minister further asked the President of the Staff Association to dispatch all his members for two hours so that he could invite the Management of the NPA to his office to present and discuss the highlighted concerns by the NPA Staff Association. No sooner the workers were dispatched to allow safety and sanity; the Minister gathered members of the NPA Management in his office. The concerns were discussed in one hour after which the charismatic Minister conveyed a third meeting with both parties (Management and Staff Association Executive Members). Minister Robbin-Coker was able to resolve the impasse between the two parties in an amicable manner and resolutions were slated on how fast and correct the ways of solving the problems would go.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 07:39:02 +0000
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