By Bashir Bello

KANO—Protesting workers, led by officials of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, yesterday, picketed and shut the headquatres of the Kano Electricity Distribution Company, KEDCO, over alleged six years of unremitted pension arrears, among others.

The aggrieved workers were also protesting perceived poor medical services, lack of working tools, victimisation of union leaders and unfair treatment of employees, among others.

They displayed several placards inscriptions such as ” No to ill-treatment of staff”, “Poor Medicare services”, “No working tools” and “Victimization of union leaders” among others.

Leading the picketers, the Northwest Chairman of NUEE, Ado Riruwai, said the company would remain shut until their grievances were resolved, saying “The company owes the workers a lot. Take for instance the pension remittance, for over six years it has not remitted pensions. For over three years it has not paid productivity bonus, the company has refused to promote employees and has refused to provide working tools for staff. Then, there is the issue of victimisation of the labour leaders and other workers. It is like workers have been turned into slaves. So, we had no other choice than to carry out this action to call the management to order. The company is shut down indefinitely until when the issues raised are resolved.”

Reacting, management said it inherited the backlog of the unremitted pensions and others.

The Head of Corporate Communication, Sani Bala said “The issues have been lingering for over five to six years. The new management has prioritised the issue of pension, salary and others and pay as at when due. So the lingering issue is the backlog which we do not have enough funds to settle. So the management has resolved to settle it bit by bit.”