{"id":57176,"date":"2024-11-28T05:58:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T05:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=57176"},"modified":"2024-11-28T05:58:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T05:58:19","slug":"workers-protest-shut-down-aedc-headquarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/11\/28\/workers-protest-shut-down-aedc-headquarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Workers Protest, Shut Down AEDC Headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) headquarters in Abuja was brought to a standstill on Wednesday as electricity workers staged a massive protest over unresolved labor grievances.<\/p>\n

Members of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) and the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) barricaded the premises, demanding urgent action from management on issues ranging from unpaid pension remittances to poor working conditions.<\/p>\n

The protest, which began early in the morning, saw workers wielding placards with bold inscriptions like \u201cWe Demand Immediate Payment of 15 Months Pension Remittance,\u201d \u201cStop Staff Stagnation,\u201d and \u201cImplement N70,000 Minimum Wage Now.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also decried the casualization of workers and called for the resignation of top AEDC officials, including the Chief Operating Officer and the Human Resources Manager.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the grievances is AEDC\u2019s failure to remit pension deductions to Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) for over 15 months, an issue SSAEAC Branch President Comrade Raymond Okoro labeled as outright financial fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithholding pension deductions without remittance is more than an administrative oversight\u2014it is a crime,\u201d Okoro said.<\/p>\n

He added that employees have been denied medical care due to unpaid bills, further compounding their plight.<\/p>\n

Comrade Ayodele Kolade, Zonal Organising Secretary of NUEE, painted a grim picture of working conditions at AEDC, stating that staff have gone over a decade without promotions or salary increments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile management continues to deduct pensions, they fail to remit them. If our demands are ignored, we will shut down AEDC completely,\u201d Kolade warned.<\/p>\n

Despite issuing a seven-day ultimatum last week, workers claimed AEDC management failed to adequately address their concerns.<\/p>\n

In response to the protests, AEDC Managing Director Engineer Chijioke Okwuokenye apologized for the lapses, taking responsibility for the situation and pledging to work with the board to resolve the issues.<\/p>\n

However, union leaders dismissed his apology, citing years of unfulfilled promises.<\/p>\n

The protesting workers vowed to sustain their demonstrations until all their demands are met, including the payment of pension arrears, implementation of a minimum wage, and better working conditions.<\/p>\n

As tensions escalate, the possibility of a total shutdown of AEDC operations looms large, leaving the electricity distribution company grappling with both internal and external crises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adenike Lawal The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) headquarters in Abuja was brought to a standstill on Wednesday as electricity workers staged a massive protest over unresolved labor grievances. Members of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) and the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) barricaded the premises, demanding urgent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":57177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57178,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57176\/revisions\/57178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}