City Power appoints new employee relations specialist
JOBURG – City Power appoints new employee relations specialist Charles Nupen to mend relations between City Power and SAMWU.
City Power has appointed a new employee relations specialist, Charles Nupen, in order to facilitate a process to mend relations between management and organised labour.
City Power spokesperson Yumna Sheik said the appointment was finalised as part of an agreement between City Power and the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU).
Sheik explained in October 2015, that the chairperson of the board, Reverend Frank Chicane, met with SAMWU after a threat of a possible strike from the union.
“The threatened strike action was averted, however, it was mutually accepted by the parties that the relationship between management and labour has been strained and an amicable and professional relationship needed to be restored. To that end, the services of a highly respected labour relations professional were sought and secured to facilitate a process to improve the relationship between the parties,” said Sheik.
She added Nupen is an attorney and an alternative dispute resolution specialist who was appointed as executive director of the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa in 1987 to 1995 after several years in legal practice.
In 1994 he was appointed as a commissioner of the Independent Electoral Commission which oversaw South Africa’s first national democratic elections and in 1995 he was a key adviser in the establishment of the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) where he later served as the CCMA’s first executive director.
Sheik said since 2008 Nupen has been consulting in the field of employee relations and has been involved in high-level interventions to resolve commercial disputes, labour disputes, and to address dysfunctional relationships and systems in corporate settings and in professional service firms.
She concluded by saying City Power is pleased about the appointment of Nupen and is looking forward to working with him.
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