Kaduna electricity coy staff protest non payment of salary, sack

Workers of Kaduna Electric yesterday protested what they called unlawful sack and non-payment of their three-month-old  salaries. Our correspondent reports that the protesters were however dispersed by men of the Kaduna State Police Command, who used teargas on them. Journalists who were covering the protest also had to scamper for safety.
 One of the protesters alleged that Kaduna Electric, a subsidiary of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC), sacked them after they had worked for three months without salary.
 They lamented that during the recent recruitment exercise, the company instead of engaging casual workers, some of whom had  been with the company for about 15 years, recruited people from “outside”.
A protester, Abdul Attah, told our correspondent that they were ready to go, but that the company should pay them.
“We are casual staff; why should they just tell us to go without a reason? Some of us have been here for 15 years now; how can we work for three months and be dismissed without payment. They gave us casual appointment letter, so let them pay us what they are owing us,” he said.
In its reactions, management of Kaduna Electric, reaffirmed the company’s unalloyed respect for both national and international labour laws and conventions.
 In a statement, Head, Corporate Communications of the Company, Abdulazeez Abdullahi, said, “When the current management took over the company in December last year, it discovered that there existed a large number of casual workers who were being paid peanuts and that those in the group were given opportunity to apply for full and more dignified employment which they did. He said they went through the recruitment processes and that the successful ones among them were employed.
He described the protesters as those who failed to make the cut in the recently concluded recruitment exercise, which he insisted was fairly conducted.
He said only the best qualified candidates were recruited, adding, “it is therefore factually incorrect and unfair to hold the current management responsible for the plight of any group of people”.
He called on the protesters not to allow themselves to be misguided and to desist from any action that will cause problem in the state.