The Kano State chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, has picketed the head office of the Kano Electricity Distribution Company, KEDCO, in Kano State over mass retrenchment of workers and 12 other demands.
DAILY NIGRERIAN reports that in the early hours of Monday, the workers besieged the headquarters holding placards with different inscriptions such as ‘we demand payment of mileage allowance’, ‘We demand payment of 18 months pension arrears’, among others.
KEDCO had recently disengaged some staff on account of incompetency and under-performance.
Addressing newsmen at the company’s headquarters in Kano, the state’s NLC Chairman, Dr. Kabiru Ado-Minjibir, warned the KEDCO management address the 13 demands of its staff or face disruption of operations.
According to him, the workers’ demands include payment of 13-month salary of 2019 and 2020, stopping selective promotions and following KEDCO established rules on condition of service.
He said: “We are also demanding the remittance of 48 months arrears deducted from members and we will not condone unlawful dismissal of workers on the pretext of low performance.
“The management of KEDCO is hereby called upon to address these urgently; otherwise, we want to assure them that this is the beginning of our protest.
“Picketing is one of the constitutional rights of labour. After picketing, if the right thing was not done, we will continue to push pressure to the management until the right thing is done. We will destabilize the company until these demands are addressed,” Mr Minijibir declared.
While wondering how the workers of the electricity distribution company could perform optimally when their welfare is not being taken care of, Mr Minjibir urged the KEDCO management to try and meet the workers’ demands.
“How do the management of KEDCO wants its staff perform whole their welfare is not taken care of and they are not provided with necessary essential logistics. This is against the condition of services,” he stated.
He, therefore, stated that, “we want the management to urgently treat these issues. Let me use this to sound a warning to the company management that if all these were not addressed with urgency, the NLC will continue to destabilise the operations of KEDCO until the right thing is done.’
The NLC chairman also warned private companies in the state to desist from sacking workers who are tested positive for COVID-19, describing the act as unconstitutional and uncalled for.
In a Swift reaction, the KEDCO management said the affected staff members were marked as incompetent.
The KEDCO’s Head of Corporate Communications, Ibrahim Sani-Shawai, in a statement, the management has a performance policy on which all its staff were engaged.
Mr Shawai explained that, “176 staff were found to be performing below the expected level and being a company that believes in due process, we gave the staff three months with proper supervision and mentorship where 70 of them improved leaving 106 staff.
“More training was given with additional three months for the 106 staff to improve. In the cause of engagement, some raised issues of faulty transformers and health challenges which we took into consideration and at the end after several procedural interventions, 32 out of the 176 were found not to be responding as they continuously under-performed in their jobs.
“This is what led to their termination of appointment in line with the condition of service they signed to abide by.
“The policy on performance which was agreed upon by both unions is out to ensure commitment in the interest of the company and the welfare of staff.
On the issue of 13 months, Mr Shawai explained that, “it’s the bonus we usually pay at the end of the year but due to the financial challenge in the month of January, the Management however agreed to pay the bonus on installment basis in view of the financial challenge as a result of the service-based tariff.”
On logistics, Mr Shawai said: “A lot has been invested by KEDCO on the issue of working tools and logistics and we have packaged more to ensure the smooth running of affairs going forward.
He also clarified on the issue of pension deductions raised, saying, “there is an existing agreement reached with the same Unions that we would continue to pay current salary and at least a month outstanding until it is cleared and this is already being implemented, yet, the unions brought it as an issue.
“The Management sees the move by both unions as an attempt to gain public sympathy and divert the attention from issues on the ground. If the company must survive, competency and performance must be prioritized in line with the policy and condition of service.”
