No fewer than 50 employees of the Jos Electricity Distribution Company, JEDC, including Mr. Musa Ayiga, the Vice President, National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, North-East, have been laid off.

Ayiga told journalists in Jos yesterday that the management carried out the exercise last week.
“50 workers including myself were laid-off by the management last week in a massive purge over our agitation on disparity in salaries and working conditions.”

Ayiga said the union had engaged management over observed salary disparity between outsourced workers, those inherited from the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, and direct employees.

“Asides the salary disparity, we also observed the high- handiness in handling of staff who have not been promoted since the new management took over and its inability to regularise the appointment of those on internship one year after their engagement.

“We also discovered that the company carries out wrong placement of staff as inexperienced junior staff recently employed were made to head their seniors, while some marketing staff were given unrealistic targets in the face of the persistent black-out,“ he said.

Union officials picketed JEDC head office, Jos, by 6.30 am yesterday to press home their demands and placed a disc jockey in front of the premises who played trade union solidarity songs.
The Managing Director, JEDC, Alhaji Gidado Modibo, dismissed the allegations.

“The union claimed that we have been sacking people but it is not true. Since we took over the company in 2013, we have recruited more than 150 people. We only disengaged redundant and weak people that were not adding any value to the system and that included four assistant general managers, four business managers and some principal and senior managers.’’

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Jos electricity distribution company sacks 49 staff, including union boss