Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC)’s Ogun State office has been locked up due to an indefinite strike by electricity workers over minimum wages and staff welfare.
According to them, the action is necessary because of concerns about the new minimum wage, the non-remittance of pension and cooperative deductions, and the alleged disengagement of 17 staff, among other staff welfare issues.
As monitored in Abeokuta, staff members were seen milling around the gate to the premises. Customers who had made business arrangements were turned down.
Given the IBEDC management’s unwillingness to address their concerns, the workers had no choice but to strike until the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Lagos/Ogun Zone, Abiodun Shobayo, the vice president, said.
We are here this morning to inform them that the IBEDC management cannot continue to take us on a ride over issues with which we have spoken for about nine months.
“For instance, our pensions and cooperative deductions running to billions of naira are not remitted. We are not given interest, people have been using their money to run the company, to clear electricity faults, and to distribute electricity bills.
The management is “not ready to implement the new minimum wage.” They are not ready for negotiation, complaining that there is no fund. Additionally, they have started randomly sacking employees without regard to their employment conditions.
“About 17 of our members are already impacted, but we have declared that this cannot continue.” We’ve tried to be patient with them, but it seems like they have a secret agenda. Just recently, 900 staff of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company were sacked, we don’t want such here.
We have stated that this is unacceptable because 70% of the workforce here is casual. In any case, the strike is unconstitutional until management agrees to reconsider. The South-West, Kwara, and Kogi, which are the six states where the strike action occurs, are also affected by the IBEDC franchises.
Source: Channels TV
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