Kaduna Electric Company in a showdown with casual staff
By; Amos Tauna, Kaduna.
Business activities in Kaduna Electric Company came to a standstill Tuesday as casual staff protested the nonpayment of their three months salaries and employment letters promised them by the management of the company when the recruitment exercise commences.
Chairman of the casual staff, Malam Ahmed Mohammed said they have had meetings with the management of the company over five times without arriving at any meaningful conclusion, stressing, ‘’We are not moving away from the main gate of the company until all our allowances are paid and our employment letters given to us as promised.’’
Over one thousand casual staff that were laid off by the Company besieged the main gate of the company while Policemen closely monitored their movement to avoid any breakdown of law and order in Kaduna.
Meanwhile in a statement, the Kaduna Electric Company said it has come to the attention of the Management of Kaduna Electric that some former casual workers of the defunct PHCN have that morning locked up some of theri offices and Service Centers in Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi states.
”We wish to state categorically that their action is deplorable and, as an unregistered and unrecognized body by law, also illegal.
”Those involved in this civil disturbance are to our knowledge, miscreants who are bent on causing havoc to our operations and disrupting the peace of the communities where our offices are located.
”We have tried to reason and abort their action through a series of meetings including one at the office of the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police and several others at the instance of the Kaduna State Labour Coordinator of the Federal Ministry of Labour but all has been in vain as they are apparently determined to forge ahead with their nefarious plan.
”Though we are not under any obligation to, we have paid the entitlements of 396 persons who we have verified to have been engaged by former PHCN contract staff against clear instructions by the Management. We have also assured them that we are ready to pay anyone whose claim to have worked for Kaduna Electric is verifiable,” head of communication of the company, Abdulzeez Abdullahi said in a statement.
