Group gives Jos Disco 5-day ultimatum over sacked workers
A Civil Society Organization (CSO), SAIF Advocacy Foundation, has issued a five-day ultimatum to the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC), over the sacked of 150 workers by the company. The JEDC has sacked the workers across its four states of Plateau, Gombe, Bauchi and Benue, in what the management said was part of a re-organisation […]
A Civil Society Organization (CSO), SAIF Advocacy Foundation, has issued a five-day ultimatum to the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC), over the sacked of 150 workers by the company.
The JEDC has sacked the workers across its four states of Plateau, Gombe, Bauchi and Benue, in what the management said was part of a re-organisation aimed at optimum performance.
Coordinator of the group, Alhassan Yahaya, said they would stage a protest to the JEDC office in Gombe over the sacked of about 45 indigenes of the state, who he claimed were mostly affected by the sack.
According to him the company gets 45 percent of its revenue from Gombe state, but has only seven indigenes working across the four states where JEDC operates.
“Most of the sacked staff are indigenes of Gombe state, where JEDC get most of its revenue across the four states it covers. For instance in September, it has generated N1.2 billion from this state alone,” he said.
Alhassan also rejected JEDC’s claims that the disengaged workers which include marketers, linesmen, network engineers, cable joiners and electrical fitters were old and unproductive, arguing that most of them were young persons engaged few months ago.
“If JEDC failed to reinstate them by the end of the five-day ultimatum, we will stage a peaceful demonstration and subsequently take a legal action against the company over the illegal sacking of the workers,” he added.
However, the JEDC’s Head of Corporate Communication, Dr Adakole Elijah, told Daily Trust on phone that the workers were sacked based on their performance irrespective of their state of origins.
“This is not a sack but a retrenchment by the company as the performance of the workers have been generally very poor, and many workers are not productive, hence our resolve to ask them to go,” he said.
He also alleged that some workers were relieved for extorting monies from consumers, while others collected money from customers but did not remit same to the company.
Dr Elijah added that some workers were old and could no longer add any value to the company, while others that were inherited from the former owners, had served for close to 40 years.