Ikeja Electric exits talks with labour 

Ikeja Electric (IE) has discontinued talks with Labour over the recent disengagement of workers, stating that the negotiation was tending towards a proposition that would jeopardise transparency, employee performance and service excellence to customers.

Last month, labour had picketed the electricity distribution company for three days over the disengagement of workers who failed to meet the company’s performance objectives and were deemed to be performing below standard.

However, the picketing was suspended after Ikeja Electric reached an agreement with the National Union of Electricity Workers (NUEE) and Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to set up a committee to review the performance appraisal and competency assessment process.

Citing the reason for its action, Ikeja Electric’s Head of Corporate Communications, Felix Ofulue, explained that the company had to discontinue due to a clear determination by representatives of labour to stick to a pre-conceived and irreversible position that the process was flawed.

Rather than engage in an objective and constructive review of the whole appraisal process, which is tailored in line with global best practices as Ofulue pointed out, that labour preferred an arbitrary review in which reduced criteria would be applied to certain selected employees who are members of the union”.

He said: “The performance review process was classified into four stages, clearly detailing steps to be taken at each stage. However, labour, without taking any of these steps into consideration and any justifiable rationale, insisted the process was flawed and demanded that Ikeja Electric must recall all disengaged staff”.