NLC gives Enugu Disco seven days to recall sacked unionists

 

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) to re-instate the sacked unionists of the company without further delay, to enable a good management-labour relationship.


In a two-page communiqué made available to newsmen after an extra-ordinary meeting in Owerri, Imo State, which was endorsed by the chairman and secretaries of the eastern states involved, the congress also warned the management of the company to desist from all efforts geared towards dismembering the union.

The NLC took exception at what it denounced as the unbecoming and anti-labour disposition of the company’s management, on the issue of victimised unionists in the company as well as the alleged nonchalant attitude of the company towards demands for the payment of staff allowances.

The NLC also condemned the deliberate efforts of the EEDC management to de-unionise the company, warned that the forms distributed to members of staff to fill for withdrawal of membership should be withdrawn and annulled, since unions are not organised and run by the company’s management.

Chairman of the NLC, Imo State branch, Reginald Anyadike, who read the communiqué, urged the EEDC management to pay the outstanding last quarter bulk rent and 2013 productivity bonus, and also to effect payment of the negotiated statutory allowances that the EEDC refused to pay on the takeover of the company in November 2013.

“That refusal to allow the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) personnel entrance to address their members amounts to an affront and a deliberate effort to kill the union.

“Therefore, the union should be allowed to address their members without hindrances rather than subjecting them to wicked activities or after-office hours, the communiqué added.