TheNewsGuru

Tag: workers

  • Suicide: We’ll resist Bello’s attempt to massacre Kogi workers

    …as labour leader mobilises against alleged oppression of workers in the state

    The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, on Tuesday said it will resist attempts by the Kogi State Government to starve its workforce of their entitlements.

    It, therefore, urged Nigerians to rally round workers especially those in Kogi State by donating relief materials to them.

    The President of the Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba said this while answering questions from newsmen on the Kogi worker who committed suicide on Friday, said this was necessary in order to avert another act of suicide.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Mr Edward Soje committed suicide on Sunday after going 11 months without his monthly salaries.

    “With the suicide mission embarked upon by the state worker, it shows that Kogi state workers are already internally displaced.

    “This unfortunate suicide mission by the Kogi worker is an issue that should worry all Nigerians, as non-payment of salaries is becoming a reality among workers in the state,’’ Wabba said.

    He disclosed that the NLC would soon have an audience with the Governor of Kogi in view of the fact that the plight of workers in the state was becoming worrisome.

    The NLC president, however, pointed out that non-payment of salaries had assumed a dangerous dimension in the country by leading to workers committing suicide, and should be tackled headlong.

    He said the labour union would also take its case to the National Assembly.

    “We will be demanding that the legislative body should urge governors of affected states to pay salaries when due.’’

    Wabba, however, said it was unfortunate that the Kogi governor had two weeks ago during a courtesy call on President Muhammadu Buhari claimed that he was only owing two months’ salaries.

    He added that it was more embarrassing that the same governor had, through the state’s Head of Service, later owned up that his government owed Soje only eight months’ salary.

    “This is an issue the NLC will not take lightly. We are resolute and we will mobilise our people to protest the non-payment of salaries in Kogi.

    “We have learnt however that the governor is in the habit of using thugs to harass people, but we shall be there, because we know he is not ready for dialogue,” the NLC president said.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the late Soje, who was a Director in the Kogi State Civil Service, had committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree in Lokoja, the state capital.

    He was a Grade Level 16 officer in the State Teaching Service Commission at the time he took his own life.

  • Don’t consider suicide as option, NLC begs unpaid Kogi workers

    The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Sunday appealed to workers in Kogi State not to see suicide as a way out of the current hardship imposed on them as a result of non-payment of their salaries.

    The state Chairman of the NLC, Mr Onu Edoka, who made the appeal in Lokoja warned the workers against taking extreme actions because the tough time would soon be over.

    Edoka, who was reacting to the suicide of a director in the state, Edward Soje on Oct. 16 as a result of financial hardship, insisted that taking one’s life should not be an option.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the deceased’s wife has yet to be informed of the tragic death of her husband.

    A source close to the family said a team of pastors and relations who visited her at an Abuja hospital to break the news were advised by the management against it due to her state of health.

    Edoka, however, told NAN that many workers and pensioners had died due to non-payment of their salary and pensions by the state government.

    According to him, many workers in the state have had their ailments aggravated as a result of lack of salary.

    He said high blood pressure and diabetes had become common among them.

    Edoka said the organised labour had started compiling statistics of workers and pensioners that have died in the last one year.

  • Nigerian workers deserve good remuneration – Gbajabiamila

    The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday said Nigerian workers deserve adequate remuneration in view of their contributions to the economy.

    Gbajabiamila spoke with newsmen after teaching more Senior Secondary School students in their classrooms in his Surulere 1 Federal Constituency.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the lawmaker taught students topics in Civic Education at Akintan High School, Ansarul -Deen Senior Secondary School and Obele Senior High School.

    Gbajabiamila had on Thursday taught senior students in three schools lessons in Economics at the commencement of his voluntary teaching exercise in some schools in the area.

    The Majority Leader said a well-motivated workforce was key to a productive nation, as workers remain the livewire of the economy.

    He described the current minimum wage of N18,000 being paid to workers as abysmally low, saying it did not reflect the realities.

    The lawmaker said the House of Representatives would do everything within its powers to ensure workers were paid living wages.

    Gbajabiamila said he was passionate about the welfare of workers, which was why he sponsored bills on minimum wage review.

    “Anything to do with Labour, anything to do with security and welfare of workers, count me in, for sure.

    “Workers welfare is an emotional thing for me, and that is why I think the N30,000 minimum wage being talked about is not even enough, not even near what workers should be earning.

    “So, we need to critically look at that area because a productive labour is a productive labour force. And we will do something in that regard.

    “I proposed a bill that wages of workers have to be reviewed every five years and not until there is an outcry.

    “That bill is almost law now. It will go for the president’s signature.

    “There must be a standard review of workers wages periodically. That is the right thing and that is what we want to achieve, ” he said.

    On education, the lawmaker said there must be conscious efforts by government and all stakeholders to develop the sector.

    He said that education was the foundation of development and there must be adequate investment in the sector for sustainable development.

    The lawmaker said the house would do everything possible to see that the sector got the right budgetary allocation.

    Gbajabiamila said there was hope for the country if everyone showed the right attitude to education and other things that could promote development.

    He said the decision to take students in his constituency classes was not only to impart knowledge to them but to inspire them.

    The lawmaker added that the decision was also to know what the learning looked and felt like for the necessary intervention.

    Gbajabiamila described his experiences in class as rewarding, promising to do it again and again.

     

  • Stop treating workers like slaves, NLC warns MTN, AEFB

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Friday picketed the Abuja corporate headquarters of telecommunication giant, MTN Nigeria and the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) over anti-Labour practices, accusing the two organizations of subjecting workers to slave labour.

    President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba who led the picketing said it was part of activities marking the international day for decent work, set aside by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to advance Issues of decent work, issues of occupational health and safety, better conditions of service, and minimum wage Wabba said every worker is entitled to better working conditions, accusing the telecommunication company of regularly renewing employment contract with its workers as a way of shying away from the respiratory similitude of paying gratuity and pension to them.

    At the AEPB, Wabba said: “We have identified two organisation’s, Abuja Environmental Protection Board where casualization has been on and workers have been denied the rights to unionise among other issues.

    “We need to tell them that they need to respect international labour laws, they need to also respect our own labour laws but importantly, they must respect human and trade union rights.

    “Workers have dignity, workers are not slaves and therefore, all workers must be treated with the workers best of attention. Injury to one is an injury to all. Injury to the workers at MTN and AEPB is an injury to all Nigerian workers. Issues of minimum wage must be attended to within minimum time, we are running out of time”

  • Labour crisis: Politicians are playing with destiny of people of Kogi – Bello

    Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi state, says some politicians are playing with the destiny of the people of his state.

    On Wednesday, some workers in the state appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to send food supplies and other relief materials to them.

    The workers said they had not received salaries between 11 and 21 months.

    But reacting through Kingsley Fanwo, his spokesman, Bello said demands of labour do not warrant the “desperate posture” to paint government as inhumane and irresponsible.

    “The tyranny of labour’s blackmail and campaign of calumny against government has clearly shown there are some underbelly factors surrounding the industrial disagreement between it and government in the state,” he said.

    “This government has shown transparency and accountability by publishing our accounts and what has been paid to the individual worker in the state. No worker has come out to disclaim our facts.

    “Facts at the disposal of government show that some desperate politicians are playing politics with the destiny of the people of Kogi state, who need the services for which these striking workers are paid. When we chose to confront the failed system of the past, we had no doubt of the attendant contention with the entrenched forces of retrogression who benefited from the blind corruption of the past.

    “We have started a process of recovering our looted commonwealth from past leaders. A white paper implementation committee was constituted to recover the loot. But Labour was used to strikes. We shall remain focused in ensuring that we recover every kobo stolen from the coffers of this great state.”

    “We promised a reformed, robust, disciplined, digital and accountable civil service that will oil our New Direction Agenda. This administration is poised to pursue it to a logical conclusion to the benefit of the populace,” he added.

    “We are not ignorant of the fact that some disgruntled elements are uncomfortable with the digitalization of the civil service operations which will curb truancy and corruption. As a responsible government, we have never denied owing workers a few months salary. We have paid half of July and we are in the process of paying the balance as well as the August salary.

    “The need for labour to embrace dialogue stems from the paucity of resources across the nation. It is not peculiar to our state. We are ready to dialogue with labour when they return to work and we hope they will do that in the interest of the good people of Kogi state.

    “We will be decisive if they remain adamant and continue to go violent on workers who do not believe in their agitation.”

  • ‘IDPs better than us, we can’t afford one meal a day,’ say Kogi workers

    The organised labour in Kogi state continued on Wednesday, the workers said the agony they were facing then was more than that faced internally displaced persons (IDP).

    The organised labour said the workers in the state needed the services of the humanitarian agencies to provide relief materials for them.

    The workers in a statement signed by Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Olakunle Faniyi and Kolawole James and Joint Public Services negotiating council counterpart, Comrade Isah Abubakar, said the dying workers of the state needed intervention.

    They noted that a “situation where workers could not afford even one meal a day and pay the school fees of their children is already a humanitarian issue.

    ” As it stands today in Kogi state, over 30 percent of the workforce are being owed 21 months salaries, 21 percent have unpaid salaries between 11 and 18 months, while about 45 percent took their salaries up till June this year.

    “These are categories of workers that the Kogi state government is forcing to embrace the clock in, clock out policy of the government”.

    The workers said instead of apologising to the workers and their families over the untold hardship they had been subjected to, the state government was rolling “out falsehood on how workers have been paid their salaries up until July “.

    The organised labour however charged the government to treat the workers with dignity, saying “not even in the era of slavery that slaves are forced to work on empty stomachs “.

  • Strikes: Be more proactive to workers’ demand – NLC tells FG, States

    Strikes: Be more proactive to workers’ demand – NLC tells FG, States

    The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Thursday urged the Federal, States and Local Governments to be more proactive to workers’ demand to avoid a total breakdown of activities as currently obtained in the health and education sectors.

    In an exclusive phone conversation with TheNewsGuru.com, an executive of the union, who spoke on condition of anonymity said most times government waits till labour enforces the option of strikes before agreeing to honour agreements they willingly entered into with the unions.

    “Governments need to be more proactive to workers’ demands. Workers most times don’t prefer going on strike but that is the only language government understands. People work under poor conditions and still get poorly remunerated. Sometimes they don’t even get remunerated for months and even years. And they hear of same government officials spending billions on insignificant projects. This is why we most times chose to embark on strikes to get what they deserve from them (the government).”

    When he was asked for comments on the proposed strike action by workers under the aegis of United Labour Congress, UCL, the comrade said: “I’m sure they must have engaged the government before deciding to embrace the strike option. It is government’s insensitivity to workers demand that causes strike. I’ll implore the government to meet with them and consider their requests. We can’t afford going on another strike especially in key sectors like power and oil. That will be disastrous. The unions will shelve the strike if governments fulfil its end of the bargain,” he said.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the United Labour Congress, ULC, and its affiliate unions on Tuesday threatened to shut down the oil and power sectors by Friday if the Federal Government does not meet its demands.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that other affiliates of the union that promised to shut down the sectors by Friday include Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE.

    Others are National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, NAAPE; National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Employees, NUBIFIE; Nigeria Union of Mine Workers, National Association of Aviation Professionals, Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria; Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria; Nigeria Union of Railway Workers; Private Telecommunications, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Nigeria Union of Shop and Distributive Employees.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that while the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, called off its three weeks old strike on Thursday (today), the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is still meeting with the federal government to finalise ending it’s over one-month-old strike that has crippled academic activities across state and federal institutions.

     

     

  • We pay 60% of LG workers in Nasarawa for idleness – Commissioner

    The Nasarawa State Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Haruna Osegba, has said more than 60 per cent of local government workers in the state are receiving salaries for doing nothing.

    “We have discovered that over 60 percent of staff at the local government levels are not going to work, but only come to receive salary at the end of the month,’’ he told newsmen on Tuesday in Lafia.

    Osegbe who met with members of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in the state, said the government had established a machinery to check the situation.

    The commissioner said the government was worried that the salaries of local government workers were being paid in a piecemeal in the last one year even though most of the workers do not even go to work.

    “We have put a machinery in motion to check this trend and anyone found culpable would face serious disciplinary action,” he added.

    Osegba said that the ministry would promote “all dedicated local government workers to boost their morale.’’

    He said that the state Local Government Service Commission had conducted a screening of genuine local council workers and would release the list of those cleared soon.

    The commissioner further said that the government was doing its best to restore full salary payment to all local government workers as of when due.

     

    NAN

  • Resume work immediately or face sanctions, Ambode orders LASPOTECH workers

    …sues staff unions of the polytechnic

    The Lagos State government has filed a motion on notice for interlocutory injunction before the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos to restrain the staff unions of Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) from embarking on another strike action.

    The state government also directed the striking workers to return to work immediately.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that academic and administrative activities was paralysed on Wednesday at the institution as workers began an indefinite strike on Aug. 1.

    However, the Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, in a statement on Friday, said the originating processes and motion on notice for interlocutory injunction have been served on the three unions including the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU).

    He said the government, since October 2016, has actively engaged and held discussions with the three unions based on their request that the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS) 15 Migration Scheme, developed in 2009 by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), be implemented with payment of the accruing 87 months’ arrears, computed to the tune of N1.7billion.

    According to him, in the intervening months since the matter was first brought to the attention of the government, deliberations have been carried out through the Governing Council of the school and related MDAs specifically Ministries of Establishment, Training & Pension, Public Service Office (PSO), and Economic Planning & Budget in order to ensure that the matter was properly addressed.

    Bank-Olemoh added that the State’s Ministry of Education also reached out to the NBTE to ascertain the exact provisions and mandate of the CONTISS 15 SALARY Migration Scheme noting that the response was that the demands of the unions were not in line with the provisions set out by the NBTE in 2009.

    He wondered that despite the fact that a copy of the report, dated July 14th, 2017, was sent to the Governing Council of Lagos State Polytechnic and circulated among the three Staff Unions, they had maintained their stance in asking for payment in arrears from 2009, called for a strike called for a strike.

    Besides, Bank-Olemoh said the government was committed to entrenching stability in the State’s tertiary institutions and that regardless of the ongoing economic challenges across the country, the it has continued to prioritize the funding and carrying out major infrastructural projects at State tertiary institutions in the past year, and recently increasing monthly subventions of all State institutions, with no arrears owed.

    He however appealed to the three Staff Unions of Lagos State Polytechnic to apply fair judgment and consider the students of the institution, particularly those in their final year who would be adversely affected if they are not allowed to take their final exams.

    “All members of Staff and Students are further advised to continue with their lawful activities on and off campus, as the State Government will continue to pursue all necessary steps to ensure peace, stability and security in the Polytechnic.

    ”In this regard, all staff are hereby directed to resume work without further delay, while the management should monitor compliance and report same to the Ministry of Education,” Bank-Olemoh said.

  • Aregbesola is a liar, workers, pensioners in Osun not yet paid – DSM

    Sequel to a statement credited to the Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola that his administration has cleared salary arrears of workers and pensioners in the state, the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) has faulted the claim insisting that the governor is yet to make the payments.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Aregbesola made the comment on Wednesday in Osogbo at a symposium organised by the Osun Command of the Police Community Relations Committee.

    In his words: “Let me make a resounding correction that despite the paucity of funds, it is only a section of workers on grade level 12 and above who receive painfully 50 percent of their gross salaries based on agreement between the government and the labour union.”

    However, in a statement, the DSM said the governor’s claim is unfortunate and aimed at denying workers and retirees arrears of their salaries and pensions owed over twenty-four months.

    The group said: “Nothing exemplifies this than the fact the governor was making the reported statement days after acknowledging the receipt of Paris Club refund to the tune of over N6.3 billion.

    “We ask; if the government owes no worker or pensioner, why did not the government collect the Paris Club refund, which was released basically to offset salaries and pensions? It is either the governor is being economical with the truth or trying to divert the refund to other purposes.

    “If the government does not owe workers and pensioners, why is the government paying arrears of salaries and pensions, albeit of July and August 2015. Moreover, it is condemnable that union leaders who should be fighting for full payment of salaries, pensions and allowances, is cozying up with government to administer the fraudulent half salary and half pension policy.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, the reality on ground is that the government has been paying half salaries and half pensions for workers and retirees above Grade Level 7 since July 2015. This section of workers and retirees include teachers, majority of civil servants and about half of local government workers.

    “Also, medical doctors and health workers, as well as staff (teaching and non-teaching) in the state-owned polytechnics and colleges of education were forced to collect half salaries, even when their leaders were not party to the rotten arrangement.

    “It was few months’ ago that the government increased the salaries and pensions of those between Grade Levels 8 and 12 to three-quarters of their salaries and pensions, while those on Grade Levels 12 to 17 are left out.

    “In fact, the increase was a kind of a scam, as the government was to pay full salaries and pensions after receiving a tranche of bailout from federal government. Rather, the government only paid three-quarter salaries and pensions to selected few workers.

    “However, medical officers, health workers and tertiary institutions’ staff are still being paid the illegal half salaries and half pensions. Therefore, the government of Ogbeni Aregbesola owes majority of workers and retirees arrears of salaries and pensions for twenty-four (24) months.

    “This is aside thousands of retirees who are on contributory pension scheme, whose pension bonds and deductions have not been paid to their Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) by the Aregbesola government several months after retirement. Furthermore, the government has not paid gratuity of a single retiree under the government pension scheme.

    “It is left for Aregbesola government to explain to the world how a state that earned over N300 billion as allocations and incurred over N250 billion as debt within five years is still unable to pay salaries and pensions.

    “We call for full probe of the Aregbesola government’s finances by democratic committee comprising representatives of workers, pensioners, communities, professional groups and the government”.