The Nation Newspaper

Tag: workers

  • Unpaid workers shut down Bayelsa LG secretariats

    Unpaid workers shut down Bayelsa LG secretariats

    Some local government secretariats in Bayelsa State were Monday shut down by aggrieved workers who protested many months of unpaid salaries.

    The angry workers said they were dying of hunger because their local government chairmen owed them salaries between five to nine months.

    Workers in Sagbama and Nembe, the local government areas of Governor Seriake Dickson and his deputy, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd), including those in Yenagoa were the worst hit.

    The workers under the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) barricaded the council secretariats and said the facilities would remain under lock and key until their salaries and allowances were paid.

    The remaining five councils of Ogbia, Brass, Kolokuma-Opokuma,  Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw  also owed their workers different arrears of salaries

    In Yenagoa, placard-bearing workers stormed the council’s secretariat at about 6am,  chanting songs to draw public attention to their plight.

    The workers held placards with messages such as “The chairman has not told us the problem; the political appointees have been paid up to date”, “We are owed for four months”, “NYSC workers have not got their allowances”, “Our chairman is a sadist”, “Internally generated revenues are in private account,  not in council treasury”, “Council workers are not slaves, they should be treated as human beings”.

    Speaking on the plight of workers, the Chairman, NULGE, Yenagoa LGA chapter, Mr. Oyoro Kwaka,  said the council has been owing them since October 2015.

    He asked the council chairman to disclose what how he spent the council’s allocation for November and December.

    He alleged that the alerts of revenue arising from the IGR of the council were usually received in private bank account instead of the council’s account.

    Oyoro said: “They are owing us October, November, December and January. Our children are at home; they have been sent back home from school because we cannot pay their school fees.

    “We did not have money for Christmas, for the first time in this local government, we could not afford to buy a grain of rice for Christmas, yet the politicians bought rice, cows, goats, wrappers and so many other things for themselves. Even now, the politicians have been paid up to date but they refuse to pay us our own salaries for four months.

    “Allocations have been coming. In our council, the revenue goes to the chairman’s personal account. The revenue unit has not alert, the chairman gets the alert if any money is paid to the council account. It is not done in any organization, this is a local govermment, the money collected from revenue should go to the local government account.

    “If he refuses to pay us we will not vacate this place, we have the backing of the security agencies and we have announced on the state radio that we are embarking on this protest.”

    But the Head of Local Government Administration, Yenagoa, Dr. Ovienadu Torutein, admitted that the council owed some categories of workers for three months and others for two months.

    He said: “Yes, we are owing some for three months and some for two months. The reason is that the allocation we receive from the Federal Government is not enough and it affects not only this local government but others.

    “We are even trying to meet up with payment of salaries more than other local government areas.

    “We have a salary wage bill of about N97million or thereabouts and if we add that of the politicians, it is about N108m and we receive less than that. On the average, we are receiving between N70m and N80 million after the statutory deductions.”

    He appealed to the workers to exercise patience, insisting that the council was working hard to ensure that their salaries were paid.

    But a NULGE official, who did not want his name in print, said the genesis of the indebtedness to workers began during the general elections.

    He said huge sums of money were deducted from workers’ salaries during the election that sacked former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    He said even during the governorship election, about N50m was deducted from the accounts of some council.

  • Ekiti workers decry reversal of salaries

    •Govt: error from service provider
    •APC: Fayose must stop deceiving workers

    Government workers in Ekiti State have decried the withdrawal of their salaries, few minutes after most of them received bank alerts of payment on Friday.

    The workers, many of who are owed three months arrears, had celebrated on receiving the alerts of payment of two months arrears.

    Their joy turned “sour” when they received another alert reversing the payment.

    The development forced many of them to make phone calls to their colleagues to confirm if they had the same experience.

    Some of the workers, who pleaded for anonymity, expressed shock with the development which they said has dampened their morale and exposed them to ridicule.

    A Grade Level 13 officer said: “I was very happy when I received alert that my account has been credited with two months salaries and I started calculating how I would spend it but I was shocked to receive another alert within an hour withdrawing the money paid into my account.”

    Commissioner for Information Lanre Ogunsuyi said the government was sorry for the inconvenience which he attributed to “an error by the firm  handling the computerisation of accounts”.

    Ogunsuyi said: “We are aware of the development and I want to say that government is sorry for the inconvenience this might have caused our workers. Today, everybody will get one-month pay.

    “It was an error by the firm that handled the computerisation of accounts, it was an error by our service provider.”

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned Governor Ayo Fayose to stop deceiving workers.

    In a statement yesterday by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the APC warned Fayose against persecuting union leaders for demanding for workers’ rights.

    Olatunbosun described the action of crediting workers’ accounts only to withdraw same after media hype as “callous and highly fraudulent”.

    He warned Fayose to “stop playing games with the lives of workers”.

    According to him, Fayose’s inconsistent figures on the state debts and non-transparent manner in the conduct of government’s business were enough for workers to lose faith in him.

    He said: “This is not the first time the governor is doing this to workers. He did it to primary school teachers last year when he learnt that they were to embark on strike.

    “That is what he did last week after learning of strike plan by teachers after they refused to help him in a solidarity rally to save him from Ekitigate probe.”

    “The governor who said the state was broke suddenly paid two months salary after learning that the teachers were bent on protesting the non-payment of their salary arrears, even though he quickly reversed a month salary from their accounts after workers were celebrating payment of two months arrears.

    “As we speak, Fayose is threatening labour leaders for legitimately asking for the rights of workers.

    “He has relocated government business to Afao- Ekiti just as he did when he was about to be impeached in 2006.”

  • NLC to Imo govt: Workers will defend selves if…

    NLC to Imo govt: Workers will defend selves if…

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned that it may  be forced to resort to self defence should its members continue to be brutalised by those it called militia groups sponsored by the Imo State government.

    NLC President Ayuba Wabba accused the Imo government of sponsoring militia groups to intimidate and brutalise workers who are merely demanding their legitimate right.  Wabba, in a statement in Abuja, alleged that armed policemen opened fire on Medical doctors during a peaceful protest by the state chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association(NMA), leaving one of them  critically injured.

    The congress asked the Police to bring to book the policeman that fired live bullets at the workers and others providing cover for the state- sponsored militia groups to unleash terror on the workers.

    Wabba said the shooting of the doctor by an armed police man during the  protest “represents a big minus for the police force that claims credit for reform on the one hand and a rising degree of intolerance for alternative view point by the government of Owelle Rochas Okorocha.”

    Describing the shooting as a bestial and despicable act in its entirety, the NLC President said: “even in wars without rules, medical doctors and other health workers enjoy the singular distinction of protection and preservation by combatants on either side.

    “For the police to therefore fire live ammunition at peacefully-protesting doctors asking for their legitimate rights runs counter to any known rule of engagement.

    “But the shooting of this medical doctor who is lying critically ill, is not an isolated case but part of a growing terror culture instituted by Governor Okorocha.

    “In the past two weeks alone, his armed militia had beaten a Medical Doctor at Uboma Hospital to a state of coma as well as brutalised several others.

    “His militia, given cover by the state Police Command, funded and armed by workers’ taxes, have embarked on a campaign of brutalisation and dehumanisation against workers as they (militia and police) forcefully sought to enforce the closure of 19 government parastatals whose sale or privatisation was announced on the radio the previous day. “The use of the armed police and militia against law-abiding workers by the governor of Imo State is unlawful, immoral and betrays the principles of democracy and should be resisted by all.

    “We must warn that if no appropriate action is taken against the governor and his band of marauding militia and procured police personnel, in the well- known principle of self defence, we   shall respond in our own time. “Our calm and deference to the rule of law should not be mistaken as cowardice. Workers, like any other group of Nigerians, have rights guaranteed by the law.”

  • Sacked Cadbury workers get N150m lifeline

    Sacked Cadbury workers get N150m lifeline

    Twenty seven sacked workers of beverages grant Cadbury Nigeria Plc have got about N150 million as severance package. The lifeline came after five years of struggle by the National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) to get the management of Cadbury to pay them off.

    NUFBTE declared a trade dispute against the management of Cadbury and consistently followed the case until judgment was delivered in October last year. The judgment in favour of the union had directed the company to reinstate the workers and pay them the backlog of their salaries.

    The workers, however, resigned en-mass and demanded for their exit package.

    Cadbury management last month decided to pay the workers off and called them to its headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos State, for the payment. The workers received two and six million naira, based on their positions and job titles.

    However, the chairman of the workers union, Mr. Akinkuotu Adekunle, said the management was still indebted to the embattled workers, as they were only paid their salaries and gratuities.

    According to him, the workers  expect the company to pay their leave bonuses, end of year gifts, which is usually monetised and 13th month incentives, as well as awards and food allowances as part of the exit packages.

    Akinkuotu recalled that the bone of contention was the management’s flagrant disregard of collective bargaining and procedural agreement. According to him, the management, before he was elected, often manipulated the union and sacked workers at will without due consultation with the national secretariat of the union.

    He said:“In 2008, the management wanted to sack workers without the knowledge of our national secretariat. We resisted it until the national union was carried along. The management had not been treating those of us working in Ondo State well at all, here, we are paid peanuts, and before now our monthly medical allowance used to be N200, before we challenged them and it was increased to N1500.”

    He said it was a call for the re-appraisal of the workers’ welfare initiated by the union, which the management refused that snowballed into the crisis. “In 2009, we wrote management for a meeting to reappraise the condition under which we worked, but not until June 2010, that we got the audience.

    “Even at the meeting, management disagreed on all issues we presented and subsequently refused to have any other meeting with us. Rather, the management resorted to threatening and harassing us with mobile policemen, issued us queries and eventually forced us to collect sack letters,” Akinkuotu stated.

    Noting that it was against labour law to disengage workers under duress, Akinkuotu lamented that in total disregard of due process, the management on June 30, 2010 sacked 27 workers.

    The National President of the union, Lateef Oyelekan, though was happy that the workers eventually got their entitlements after five years of struggle, saying that peace and harmony could dominate the workplace if the management could respect the tenets of industrial relations.

    “The issue supposed not to have degenerated to the level of declaring trade dispute because we follow normal procedure, but for the management stubbornness. The lesson for both of us is that dialogue is better than crisis”, he said.

    He said the battle was easier for the union to fight as the workers had implicit confidence in the leadership of the union. Besides, the union was equally paying the embattled workers monthly stipends.

    Oyelekan added that the workers who resigned en-masse after the judgment was in accordance with the union’s advice.

    He stated, “Nobody can force unwilling workers on unwilling employers, and we all know that people don’t go to court and return as friends, this is the reason why we advised our members to resign and get all their entitlements. It is the best option instead of going back to face victimisation and humiliation.”

  • Union secures one year salary for sacked workers

    The National Union of Chemical Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE) has compelled the management of Nycil Nigeria Ltd. to pay one year salary to its workers who were sacked last month.

    The company, which is based in Sango Ota in Ogun State in December, last year, laid off 17 workers, including four union executives, without following due process.

    The company, which manufactures and markets synthetic resins, emulsions and allied chemicals, was said to have paid the workers only three months, irrespective of the number of years they have served.

    President of NUCFRLANMPE, Mr. Boniface Isok, who led union members to shut Nycil over alleged indiscriminate termination of appointments, accused the firm’s management of not negotiating with the union before sacking the workers.

    He said: “When 40 workers were sacked in June 2015, the company did not consult us and we did not query them. We directed the workers to continue their work in peace. On December 31, another 17 workers, including four union officials, were sacked without negotiating with us.

    “That is why we stopped operation in the company until the management discusses with us and stops all forms of inhumane treatment meted on our members.’’

    He said with the agreement now signed, the management would ensure that gross salary was paid within weeks and further indiscriminate sack of the workers put on hold.

    Isok said the union was not against the disengagement of any employee, but that the management must provide good reasons for its action.

    Human Resources Manager of Nycil, Prince Olufemi Olugbogi, at the meeting, however, apologised to the union for the breach, noting that the action was taken to reduce costs. He explained that the company carried out the sack to reposition the company in the New Year.

    A Controller in the Ministry of Labour and Employment in Ogun State, Mr. Muyiwa Fatoki, who reconciled both parties, advised them to respect the agreements.

    He said it was not enough to pay off workers as stipulated by the law, but that the relevant union should be informed appropriately to ensure that they are carried along in the termination exercise.

    After a rigorous negotiation among the government, union and the management, it was agreed that 12 months’ gross salary should be added to the union officials.

    The parties also agreed that six months’ gross salary should be added to the other staff. They added that no worker should be victimised for their roles in resolving the conflict.

  • Osun sacks 150 college workers

    Osun sacks 150 college workers

    More than 150 workers of the Osun State Colleges of Education in Ilesa and Ila-Orangun have been sacked.

    Sack letters were said to have been handed over to the academic and non academic staff of the institutions across various caders.

    Eighty five workers of the College of Education Ilesa were given sack letters and sixty nine in the College of Education, Ila.

    It was learnt that the State Polytechnic, Iree and state College of Technology were not affected by the sack.

    The Director, Bureau of Communication in the Office of the Governor, Semiu Okanlawon, said those affected were workers employed by the managements of the two colleges and not by the government.

    According to him, the termination of the workers’ appointments had long been decided, adding that “giving out letters to the affected staff now is just the conclusion of the process”.

    The Academic Staff Unions of both institutions have notified the government of readiness to take “any necessary action” against the sack.

    Also, the Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State owned Tertiary Institutions has directed members not to “collect any sack letter”.

    In a statement by its Chairman and Secretary, Lasisi Jimoh, and Lana Olusegun, the union alleged that the government had failed to address “festering issues despite the unions’ several pleas and ultimatum”.

    The union said that a congress will soon hold to decide the next line of action.

  • 2,000 sacked varsity workers to be recalled

    2,000 sacked varsity workers to be recalled

    THE Federal Government is considering reversing the directive to sack workers of universities’ staff schools.

    Also, the over 2,000 workers allegedly affected by the circular to vice chancellors to remove their names from the government pay roll may soon be recalled.

    The National Salaries and Wages Commission directed universities to sack the workers, saying the government would no longer bear the cost of running staff schools.

    The situation had pitched the government and members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities.

    The union embarked on an indefinite strike on December 24, arguing that the directive was a contravention of the 2009 agreement between the government and the union.

    The Nation gathered that the government was considering  recalling the sacked workers and reversing the directive as a solution to ending the two weeks’ strike by the union.

    The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu was said to have invited the union leaders to a meeting on Sunday in Abuja to deliberate on how to end the strike.

    Sources privy to the meeting said the minister was determined to ensure that the strike is called off.

    The source said the union  insisted that the termination letters issued to its members should be withdrawn before it could call off the strike.

    The minister promised to consult with stakeholders, including the Budget Office and the National Universities Commission (NUC) before responding.

  • LASU workers to sign nominal roll

    The Lagos State University (LASU) has directed its workers to resume the signing of nominal roll before the fifth day of every month to ensure payment of their salaries.

    This was contained in the official bulletin made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos.

    According to the bulletin, the directive was meant for both academic and non-academic staff.

    The bulletin said the workers must resume the signing of the nominal roll in their faculties, colleges, schools, departments, centres and units from this month.

    “The university management also reiterates that as is the practice, failure to submit the nominal roll by the fifth of every month by any faculty, college, school, department, centre or unit will lead to the forfeiture of salary of the concerned staff for that month,” it said.

  • APC accuses Fayose of insensitivity to workers’ plight

    APC accuses Fayose of insensitivity to workers’ plight

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has described Governor Ayodele Fayose’s Christmas Dubai trip as a reckless insensitivity to the workers’ plight, saying it was a height of irresponsibility by the governor to embark on private comfort abroad while state workers live in miserable conditions during festive Yuletide season.

    Specifically, the party accused the governor of refusal to pay workers salary for three months while embarking on Christmas foreign trip through over-bloated expenses costing Ekiti people N250m.

    Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement described the governor’s Sunday trip to Dubai as the height of insensitivity and wickedness for a governor who always calls himself peoples’ governor. “It is more worrisome that the governor prepared and collected travelling allowances for 10 aides who he claimed were to travel with him to Dubai, but only one eventually made the trip while money running into millions for the remaining nine was pocketed by the governor,” Olatunbosun alleged.
    He added that the Dubai trip “confirmed our earlier alarm that Fayose is taking Ekiti money out to the Middle East country whenever he receives allocation from the Federal Government”.

    He added: “Fayose just visited local governments where he lied to the  workers that the state government is broke whereas he has appropriated N250m for his needless trip and those of ghost aides after setting aside another N250 million for his monthly personal security vote.

    “This is a governor who few days ago accused his colleagues of extravagant spending through foreign trips even though he himself is the greatest culprit. This confirms our allegation that Governor Fayose is an incorrigible con artist that ever lives.”
    Regretting that Fayose was dehumanising Ekiti people through anti-people policies, such as heavy taxes that could not be accounted for, he said this was unlike in former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s era in 2013 when workers collected their December salary a week to Christmas in addition to 30 percent of their annual basic salary as Christmas bonus.

    “Fayose again conned Ekiti workers by paying ten percent of their monthly basic salary which translated to about N700 (seven hundred naira) to most workers while he shamelessly boasted he had paid workers’ bonus,” he said.

    He added that even though he collected over N9b cash for bailout to clear arrears of workers’ salary, pensions and allowances of former political office holders, the money was allegedly diverted to other purposes.

    “He is owing Ekiti workers three months salary arrears, pensioners’ four months arrears and has not paid severance and furniture allowances of former political office holders,” he explained.
    Calling on EFCC and ICPC to invite Ekiti State Commissioner for Finance, Accountant General and the Auditor General for interrogation on how the finances of the state were mismanaged on the alleged governor’s instructions, the party reiterated its resolve to institute a legal action against the governor over alleged financial recklessness and refusal to account for all the monies he collected from the Federation Account.

  • ‘Employers, workers join employees compensation scheme

    ‘Employers, workers join employees compensation scheme

    The Managing Director Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Umar Munir Abubakar has said about 33,900 employers and seven million employees have so far joined the Employees Compensation Scheme.

    Abubakar made this known at the NSITF-Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) Safe Workplace Intervention Project (SWIP) in Port Harcourt, the River State capital.

    He explained that the increment of employers on the scheme is because employers see  the scheme as a move by government to promote safety in the workplace and ensure that injured workers are not only treated but are rehabilitated.

    “This scheme does not only ensure the safety of workers but also promote efficiency and enhance productivity because workers now know that they can work without inhibition because they would be looked after in case of injury or death,’’ he said.

    Abubakar warned that any employer that fails to enrol its workers on the scheme would soon face prosecution.

    He said: “The legal department of the NSITF has been given marching order to prosecute every non-compliant employer. We will soon drag these recalcitrant employers to court for prosecution. We will ensure that every employer that has not will now pay from July 2011 to date because this payment is a product of the law and those who flout the law must be made to face the full wrath of the law. We have given enough grace to employers; we have cajoled them and explained why their employees must be covered under the Employees Compensation Scheme Act.”

    The NSITF boss also enjoined state governments to enrol their employees on the scheme and that it had been showing a good example by paying for its employees on the scheme.

    He said the fund was trying to revive artificial body parts manufacturing centres in Lagos and Enugu.

    “Our intention is to run these centres for about six months before implementing others. Our intention is to establish each centre in the six-geopolitical zones of the country. This is a provision that is contained in the Employees Compensation Act,” Abubakar said.

    The NSITF helmsman also said it had perfected plans to develop a checklist of requirements for claims to reduce the amount of time injured employees spend to process entitlements.

    NECA Director-General, Mr. Segun Oshinowo, called for the involvement of the Ministry of Labour and Employment in the audit of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) standards in workplace premises.

    He urged companies to place emphasises on occupational safety in their various work environment, saying: “There is no enough money that can be paid to an employee for a lost eye or a lost finger. So, for us in NECA, the focus must always be to ensure that the workplace is safe for every employee.”