Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ma'aikata suna buƙatar goyon baya.

Ma'aikata means workers, employees, or staff, and it is plural. The usual singular form is ma'aikaci. In context, it can mean workers in general or the employees of a particular organization.

Why does the sentence have both ma'aikata and suna? Isn’t that like saying workers they?

Yes, in a literal sense, Hausa often works that way. After a full subject noun like ma'aikata, Hausa normally still uses a subject marker before the verb phrase. So:

Ma'aikata suna ...
literally feels like
The workers, they ...

This is normal Hausa grammar, not an error.

What is suna doing in this sentence?

Suna is the 3rd person plural subject marker used here in the imperfective/present type of construction. With ma'aikata, it tells you the subject is they.

So suna buƙatar means something like they need or they are needing, though natural English usually just says they need.

Why is it buƙatar and not buƙata?

The base form is buƙata, meaning or . When it is followed directly by the thing needed, it commonly appears as .