Employees of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company have commenced an indefinite strike following a protest concerning unfair treatment and unresolved industrial disputes with the company’s management.
According to Channels, aggrieved members of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), holding placards, blocked the entrance to the company’s headquarters in the Kaduna State capital on Tuesday morning, preventing other staff and customers from accessing the premises.
Reports state that among their demands were six years’ worth of unremitted pensions, non-payment of death benefits for deceased staff, failure to provide exit packages, allegations of unjust termination of employment for seven staff members in Zaria, inadequate support for workers to perform their duties, and purported plans to lay off over 1,000 company employees.
Speaking during the protest, Organising Secretary, North West, NUEE, Ayuba Pukat, also told our correspondent; “We are out here to exercise our right as workers of Kaduna Electric because of so many issues on ground which have to do with our staff welfare. The pension deducted from our staff was not remitted for over 72 months, and staff are still working. If you go to your pension managers, they will tell you your company did not remit. This is a criminal offence, and the licence of Kaduna Electric should be seized. This means that staff are being paid half salaries; yet, the rest is not being remitted to their pension managers.
“Again, some Zaria staff’s employments were unlawfully terminated last year as a result of malfunctioning of the power equipment in Zaria, leading to the electrocution of 14 residents in Southern Zaria. The staff were asked to leave without a fair hearing. We are here to express our dissatisfaction to the management staff regarding our welfare.
“We don’t have enough equipment to work, yet we keep getting threats upon threats. They also employed MOPOL to send us out from the premises as we protest, but we won’t leave here until we have registered our grouse,” he said.
Abdulazeez Abdullahi, the Head of Corporate Communications at the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, characterized the strike by NUEE as unnecessary and detrimental to the company’s well-being. He emphasized that the management had already initiated discussions with union leaders in an effort to address all outstanding industrial matters.
Abdullahi appealed to the workers to reconsider their position and halt the strike, allowing business operations to resume as normal.
“We woke up this morning to the news that members of NUEE have locked up our offices. We were shocked because there was no need for it. We have a quarterly meeting scheduled for Wednesday. They have told us about the pension remittances, and there is a plan to settle the backlogs. We have a new MD, and he needs time to settle down and then plan on how to gradually offset the historical liabilities. But they chose to do this and have stopped staff and customers from coming in. This is illegal, and we think this is unnecessary. We know the company is not in a good place right now, but the new MD has promised to turn the company. We need all hands to be on deck so that we can forge a way forward for the company,” he said.
