Less than 24 hours to Christmas, the United Nigerian Textiles Limited (UNTL) Kaduna State has sacked 3,000 workers from its employment.
A source in the Company’s Management said the organisation could no longer service the employment of the sacked staff and had to lay them off.
He said, the company, despite the economic hardship it faced, kept the workers on its payroll for over a year without work.
He lamented that the company has not been in production for the past two years due to the high exchange rates.
“We face a lot of problems. The exchange rate is too high, the cost of production is growing higher than the market price for our products.
“Again, the federal government has not given us listening ears to assist in certain areas. There is no market price for our products as other competitors have taken over the market.
One of the sacked workers who said he worked in the spinning department, Mr. Joshua Achima explained that he went to work on Wednesday, 23/12/2020, only for his shift supervisor to tell him to report at the personnel department.
“I went to the afternoon shift on Wednesday. My supervisor told me that the personnel manager wanted to see me. On reaching there, he handed over a letter to me. At first, I thought, it was a commendation letter. When I opened the letter, it read: “Your service is no longer required.”
Efforts to reach the personnel manager of the company failed as the gate to the premises was under lock and key at the time of filing this report.
The security man at the gate also refused to speak to this reporter.
A human rights activist in Kaduna State, Dr. Ishaya Maduga while reacting to the sack of the workers and the recent notice of demolition issued to Kakuri Market traders, said ”Kaduna residents are in for the worst”.
He lamented that criminality, kidnapping for ransom, prostitution, killings, stealing would soon become rampant since there are no jobs and no market for people to do business.
“Unfortunately, Kaduna has gotten to this level of hardship with hundreds of people in the state, he said
”Very soon, the worst of it all will happen as there will be thieves everywhere.” He said
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