NHRC urges workers to shelve planned strike

From Nicholas Kalu, Abuja

The Management of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has advised the staff union of the commission to jettison their proposed strike, scheduled to begin on July 16, over unpaid new minimum wage and investigations allowances.

NHRC’s Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu, who spoke in Abuja, explained that the commission under his watch was making “frantic and relentless” efforts to persuade the Federal Government to release funds to pay the minimum wage arrears and investigations allowances.

Ojukwu said the situation was similar to what obtained in sister organisations, like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Public Complaints Commission, the Judiciary and the National Assembly, which are on the statutory transfer or first-line charge in the federal allocation system.

The executive secretary said only Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) had been paid the new minimum wage and its arrears.

He said his management team had explained the various efforts it made to the executive members of the Federal Civil Service Union and its NHRC unit.

Read Also: Malami, NHRC boss seek stronger laws against rape, SGBV

According to him, industrial harmony, rather than a strike, is what is needed to further deepen the interface with the government towards securing the release of the necessary funds to pay the government approved minimum wage arrears and the consequential additions in the monthly salaries.

Ojukwu recalled the management’s numerous staff welfare programmes and its avowed stance to prioritise the interest of the commission’s workers.

He said it had been his passion to ensure that the commission’s members of staff enjoy all statutory and consequential benefits, like the improved investigations allowances, to assuage the numerous hazards that the commission’s workers face in the course of discharging their duties.

According to him, the protection and investigation allowances of the commission have not been reviewed for 10 years.

But the management approached the National Income, Salaries and Wages Commission (NISWC), which reviewed this recently and recommended an increase to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) for approval.

He said the Office of the SGF and Federal Ministry of Finance had been delaying the approval to approve the recommended allowances by NISWC, thereby dampening staff morale and jeopardising investigation of complaints on human rights violations.