Activities were on Monday grounded at the Enugu Electricty Distribution Company, EEDC, as angry workers staged protest over massive lay-off of workers.
The workers, who marched angrily along streets of Enugu metropolis, comprised the United Labour Congress, ULC, Trade Union Congress, TUC, National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE and Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, SSAEAC.
The protest terminated at the EEDC office at Okpara Avenue, Abakaliki road Enugu.
They displayed placards with various inscriptions such as “we say no to indiscriminate sacking of workers, arbitrary and crazy billing, poor working condition, ritual of burning live cows, higher bill, more darkness, no meter for customers.”
EEDC reportedly sacked over 400 staff last week and replaced them with fresh graduates.
Leader of National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Comrade Joe Ajiero who spoke on behalf of the protesting workers said that the union was on picketing exercise against the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, for arbitrary sacking of staff.
Ajiero said that the union met with the required rules before embarking on the picketing action.
“We wrote the company for a meeting to iron out some issues but they turned down our request; we equally gave them another one week which elapsed last week”, he stated.
“EEDC is the worst distribution company in the country; it sacks workers, dehumanises workers even as they work without condition of service.
“They have changed Enugu Electricity Company to Oraifite Electricity Company by sacking workers and replacing them with Oraifite people,” Ajiero added.
Also speaking, the leader of Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Applied Company, SSAEAC, Comrade Christian Okonkwo, lamented about the poor management of the company saying that the investors were not qualified to handle the company.
He said that they were just collecting money from people without delivering the service that people paid for.
“They are not qualified to manage the company. They are just collecting money from people without service,” Okonkwo said.
However, reacting to the protest, the head of communications of the EEDC, Emeka Eze condemned the protest saying that they should have embarked on dialogue rather than take to the streets.
“We were greeted this morning by a picket action organised by the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) across our business areas.
“The group besieged our offices, drove away our staff, beat up our security personnel at some location and also locked up our offices.
“This is embarrassing to us and surprising too as we have never been averse to the Union and its activities. We have been in constant meeting and discussion with the different arms of the labour union on different issues and I think it will be wrong for the NUEE to claim that we have refused to meet with their representatives (there are documentary records/documents to support this).
“EEDC embarked on a restructuring exercise last year, this was brought to the attention of representatives of the Union at some of our sessions last year.
“After this exercise, some job positions were abolished as they were no longer relevant; staff were assessed and some of them that could not defend their position/job were eventually disengaged; while we also hired additional staff to beef up our technical and customer service team.
“The decision of Management is in the interest of the organisation and was not in any way meant to witch-hunt any staff; the process was transparent and fair.
“We are a private establishment and under obligation to serve our customers; to do that effectively, we have to survive and remain in business,” Ezeh said.
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