Despite May 1st is a bank holiday celebrating International Workers’ Day, it is not so for OSHEE’s technical staff. The 30 employees of the High Voltage Brigade will continue today the overhaul of the Lanabregas – Substation of the Palace of Congress line built in 1984. This 8.5 km line, 90% of which is areal, is one of the important links in the electricity distribution system for Tirana. Amortization makes the maintenance necessary to prevent possible defects. PM Edi Rama met today the staff and thanked them for their committed work to serve citizens. He was accompanied by the minister of Social Welfare and Youth Olta Xhaçka, and the OSHEE General Administrator Ardian Çela.
Due to the lack of investments for many years, most part of the country’s electrical network has remained the same since its construction in 1974. Thanks to the sector’s positive performance over the last two years, OSHEE has increased its network investment, and has improved maintenance of the existing network to avoid defects and power cuts. Currently, 830 employees are operating throughout the country to carry out renovations. Overhaul investments have included the entire coastal area, from Velipoja to Saranda.
“This is one of the main lines for the city of Tirana. It dates back to 1984. We are doing it with OSHEE’s workforce. It is part of the overhaul program, which reaches 2 billion ALL in terms of company revenue across the country. There are 830 employees across the country making overhauls. We are currently renovating the coastal zone, so that we can be ready at the start of the tourist season. We will have completed these renovations by October for the rest of the country. Thanks to these renovations, we have reduced by 50% the number of defects, and the number of outages has decreased by 80%”, administrator Çela said.
He also added that OSHEE has followed a new strategy for recruitment, financial treatment and employees care. This is the second year employees have been insured thanks to contracts with insurance companies.
“This is the second year that over 3500 employees have been insured in terms of work accidents. The company covers all medical services, both domestically and internationally, in cases where employees are injured. We have increased salaries of all employees on the ground, taking the minimum wage from 250 thousand ALL for unqualified employees to 350 thousand ALL, and for all secondary technical staff it went to 550 thousand ALL. We have trained over 5500 employees. We recruited over 82 electric engineers during 2016 only.”
According to Prime Minister Rama, changing the management model, network investments, the new approach to addressing human resources are turning OSHEE into a modern company. Also, the Prime Minister guaranteed continuation of government measures in support of various social categories.
“For families receiving financial allowances, we have made a full compensation of the difference after removing the protective category. 19 million dollars a year from the state budget go to these families and to all other categories that were supposed to be protected with the 300 k/W category. None of them feels today the price increase, whereas it has been reduced for other categories. Interest rate for delays has been massively zeroed, as a contribution of everybody to bake big investments in order to recover a very old network. For us it is very important that the company continues to improve standards and all levels of employee treatment in order to improve quality and to continue transforming itself from an army of militants who were simply nourished and could provide no service, into a modern company that has to be even more, one of the prides of our country.”
The Minister of Social Welfare and Youth, Olta Xhaçka thanked OSHEE employees and all those who are now in the line of duty, and ensured them that even more will be done to support and protect their work as well as other vulnerable categories.
“I want to thank all these employees who are doing a tremendous job, even on this day which is a day off for everyone else. The Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth has done a lot as well. We have provided electricity compensation to 90,000 pensioners. There is a lot of work to do also for other categories in need. With the Labour Inspectorate we have managed to reduce occupational accidents by 50%. We are very committed to extend these achievements much more, even in other categories in the next mandate.”
