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Tag: workers

  • El-Rufai’s sack of 30,000 workers responsible for insecurity in Kaduna – Labour

    El-Rufai’s sack of 30,000 workers responsible for insecurity in Kaduna – Labour

    Organised Labour has linked the security challenge in Kaduna to the sack of workers by the Govenor Nasir El-Rufai led State Government.

    Labour claimed the Governor El -Rufai led administration has sacked 30, 000 workers since it came into power in 2015.

    General Secretary, Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), Comrade Sikiru Waheed, said this during the Workers’ Day celebration in Abuja.

    AUPCTRE, an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress, said it would support the decision of the Congress on the fate of workers in Kaduna.

    The National Executive Council of the NLC has threatened to shut down Kaduna and economic activities following the decision of the government to sack 5, 000 workers.

    He said: “AUPCTRE is using this May Day 2021 occasion to reassure workers and its leadership as ably represented by Comrade Ayuba Wabba that we wholeheartedly support all Central Administrative Council, Central Working Committee, and NEC decisions of the NLC on burning and unpalatable industrial dispute created by His Excellency Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on the retrenchment of 5, 000 workers last month, totalling about 30, 000 workforce since 2015 to date.

    “This has no doubt contributed to the case of insecurity in Kaduna State and its neighbouring states of Niger, FCT and Kogi.”

    The union commended workers for their resilience despite the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • May Day: Jonathan hails workers, calls them major pillars for survival

    May Day: Jonathan hails workers, calls them major pillars for survival

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said workers are major pillars for the development and survival of Nigeria.

    Jonathan said their sacrifices have been the major reason the nation still exists.

    He said this on his official Facebook page on Saturday while celebrating international workers day.

    His words: “I celebrate all Nigerian workers on this year’s #International WorkersDay. You are a major pillar for the development and survival of our nation.

    “Your commitments and sacrifices to the progress of our country have been a major reason why we have continued to exist as one nation and recorded many victories in times of global and national challenges.

    “During this COVID- 19 pandemic, many of you have been at the vanguard of protecting lives and giving hope to millions of people.

    “No matter the challenges we face today as a country, I urge us to remain selfless in service, patriotic in action and focused on the cause of nation-building.

    “Let us continue to serve with honour, dignity and love in whatever place we find ourselves so that we can achieve peace, unity and progress in all our lands”.

  • May Day: Fayemi promises workers better welfare despite harsh economic climate

    May Day: Fayemi promises workers better welfare despite harsh economic climate

    Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti says the current harsh economic climate in the country will not dampen his resolve to ensure a better welfare for state workers.
    This is just as he congratulated workers in the state on this year’s Workers Day celebrations, promising them a more conducive working environment.
    The governor’s promises are contained in a statement made available to newsmen on Friday in Ado Ekiti by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode.
    Fayemi said May Day offered an opportunity to celebrate workers and highlight their importance in the government’s efforts to impact lives of the citizenry.
    He said workers’ contribution to the social, and economic development of the state in particular and the country in general could not be overemphasised.
    The governor said that workers in Ekiti, in particular, had demonstrated brilliance and commitment in the implementation of his administration’s five-pillar development agenda
    Fayemi also referred to the theme of this year’s May Day celebration, “COVID-19 Pandemic, Social and Economic Crisis: Challenges for Jobs, Social Protection and People’s Welfare”.
    He said that making workers happy always remained one of his priority programmes.
    ” The current harsh economic climate will not dampen my resolve to ensure a better welfare and more conducive working environment for Ekiti workers,” the governor said.
    He recalled that political office holders in the state, including himself and top civil servants, recently made sacrifices including pay cuts in their salaries.
    This, he said, was not extended to workers during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic last year.
    He praised the workers, especially health workers who were in the front line in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the state, for their commitment and dedication.
    Fayemi said at the risk of their lives to ensure that the state overcame the pandemic.
    The governor pointed out that although COVID-19 affected the state’s accruals from the Federation Account and its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), his administration would continue to accord workers’ welfare a priority.
    He said that his administration was conscious of the demands of the Organised Labou, assuring that they were being looked into and would be implemented as the state’s economic situation improves.
    Fayemi said his administration had made it a duty to pay workers’ salaries and retirees’ pension regularly since his assumption of office.
    He said that new workers were also recruited to inject fresh blood into the system.
  • JUST IN: Delta Govt orders workers below level 12 to resume work

    JUST IN: Delta Govt orders workers below level 12 to resume work

    Delta State Government on Tuesday issued a directive that officers on grade levels 12 and below are to resume duties every working day (Monday to Friday), effective Wednesday, 28th April, 2021.

    The State Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, issued the directive in a statement on Monday, in Asaba.

    He said the directive is sequel to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s approval that workers on grade levels 12 and below should resume work effective immediately.

    The statement added that officers are to be in the office by 8.00 a.m. and close at the recognised closing hour daily, with effect from Wednesday, 28th April, 2021.

    The State government, in a bid to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state, had directed all public servants from levels 1 through 12 to work from home.

    The Commissioner further reiterated that upon resumption, officers are to ensure full compliance with the COVID-19 pandemic preventive protocols, including maintenance of physical distancing, regular washing and/or sanitizing of hands and wearing of face masks.

    He emphasised that Permanent Secretaries/Chief Executive Officers are to ensure strict compliance with the directives.

  • Labour to withdraw services from public, private sectors to protest mass sack of workers in Kaduna

    Labour to withdraw services from public, private sectors to protest mass sack of workers in Kaduna

    The Nigeria Labour Congress says it will withdraw services from both public and private organisations in Kaduna State for five days to protest mass sack of workers by the state government.

    The NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba made this known while addressing newsmen at end of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the NLC on Thursday in Abuja.

    Wabba said the decision to withdraw the services of workers for five days in the state would become total if the state government failed to do the needful.

    He said the CWC condemned the decision of the Gov. Nasir El-Rufai to sack close to 4, 000 workers who were mostly from 23 local government areas in the state.

    “The CWC has decided and also recommended to the National Executive Council that labour will withdraw all services from either public or private. When I mean all services, it means all services for all sectors of the economy for five days in the first instance.

    “And where there is no remorse, it is going to be a total action because we believe that El-Rufai is not alone in this action; we believe that there is a neo-liberal forces and some governments are also part of it.

    “This action is going to be total and unconditional and therefore, all unions will be issuing statements and directives to their members to take this directive seriously and that the action will go ahead, ” he said.

    Wabba said that the action was taken as a last resort due to all the communications that were written on the issue to the state government and was yet to receive any attention.

    He said the CWC therefore thought that workers should not be allowed to die in silence as thousands of workers who had been sacked were yet to be paid in line with the provisions of the law.

    “More worrisome is the policy targeted at workers that have spent more than 30 years in service. In fact, the policy said that once you are up to 50 years in service you will be disengaged and be sent off like slave or at worse like a dog without any entitlement.

    “Secondly, the letter which we have seen, indicated that their entitlement will be paid in due course and that is the same letter that was issued to those teachers that were disengaged a year ago and therefore we look at this as very serious.

    ”In fact, it is something every Nigerian must condemn. That is why Nigerians must back labour on this action that labour has proposed against the Kaduna state governor, ” he said.

    Wabba noted that the governor violated all the known laws that regulate labour and industrial relation in Nigeria with some sort of disdain while carrying out his decision to sack the workers.

    He also said the CWC condemned the conversion of workers to casuals by the Kaduna state government under the pretext of paucity of funds or drop in revenue.

    “The issue of using as an excuse, the paucity of funds is also faulted because of the fact that the same state declared an excess of over N50 billion as internally generated revenue.

    ”We know as a matter of fact that Kaduna state is one of the states receiving fat revenue from the federation account and therefore one wonders why Kaduna state government will indulge in this anti-people and anti-workers posture and decision, “he said.

    The NLC president said the CWC condemned the insecurity in the country, in particular Kaduna state, saying that the mass sack would therefore compound the security situation.

    He said that the May Day would be celebrated on May 1, at the Eagle Square with only 2,000 workers instead of the 5,000 capacity with the COVID-19 protocols that would be duly observed.

    ”The theme for 2021 Workers Say is ”Covid-19 Pandemic, Social and Economic Challenges for Decent work, Social Protection and Welfare of the People”.

    ”The theme is central and captured the essence of the workers due to the fact that COVID-19 is still ravaging the countries but importantly it is also occasioned by the challenges of the economy, ” he said.

  • Sack of 4000 workers: I wasn’t elected to pay salaries – El-Rufai

    Sack of 4000 workers: I wasn’t elected to pay salaries – El-Rufai

    Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai, has said that his government was elected to develop the state and not just to pay salaries.

    This is coming after 4000 workers across the 23 local government areas of the state received their disengagement letters from service.

    The governor further added that he “was elected to promote equality of opportunity, to build and run schools and hospitals, upgrade infrastructure and make the state more secure and attractive to the private sector for jobs and investments.

    El-Rufai, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Mr Muyiwa Adekeye, said its public finances have been severely stretched by the high wage bills at a time when revenues from the Federation Account Allocations Committee (FAAC) have not increased.

    “In November 2020, KDSG had only N162.9m left after paying salaries after receiving N4.83bn from FAAC and paid N4.66bn as wages,” he said.

    The government pointed out that what it has been receiving from FAAC since the middle of 2020, like most other sub-nationals, could barely pay salaries and overheads.

    According to him, “In the last six months, personnel costs have accounted for between 84.97% and 96.63% of FAAC transfers received by the Kaduna State Government.

    “In March 2021, Kaduna State had only N321m left after settling personnel costs.”

    The statement pointed out that in March 2021, it got N4.819 billion from FAAC and paid out N4.498 billion, representing 93% of the money received saying, “This does not include standing orders for overheads, funding security operations, running costs of schools and hospitals, and other overhead costs that the state has to bear for the machinery of government to run, for which the state government taps into IGR earnings.”

    The statement recalled that: “In September 2019, Kaduna State Government became the first government in the country to pay the new minimum wage and consequential adjustments.

    “The state government followed this up by increasing the minimum pension of persons on the defined benefits scheme to N30,000 monthly.

    “This step to advance the welfare of workers significantly increased the wage burden of the state government and immediately sapped up the funds of many local governments.

    “While the Kaduna State Government believes that public sector wages overall are still relatively low, their current levels are obviously limited by the resources available to the government.”

    El-Rufai pointed out that: “What each public servant earns might be puny in comparison to private-sector wages, but the total wage bill consumes much of the revenues of the state.

    “The desire to pay more is a sentiment that must bow to the limits prescribed by the ability to pay, therefore, the state government has no choice but to shed some weight and reduce the size of the public service.

    “It is a painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of the majority of the people of this state.”

    While justifying the job cut, the statement however described it as “A painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of the majority of the people of this state, the public service of the state with less than 100,000 employees (and their families) cannot be consuming more than 90% of government resources, with little left to positively impact the lives of the more than nine million that are not political appointees or civil servants.

    “It is gross injustice for such a micro-minority to consume the majority of the resources of the state.”

    He pointed out that the rationalisation behind the exercise will also affect political appointees and its purpose is to save funds and ensure that a strong and efficient public service exists to use those resources to implement progressive programmes and projects for the people, and thereby develop the state.

  • Anambra lawmakers, workers test positive for COVID-19, Assembly shut

    Anambra lawmakers, workers test positive for COVID-19, Assembly shut

    The Anambra House of Assembly on Wednesday shut the assembly complex for three weeks after some lawmakers and members of staff tested positive for COVID-19.

    The assembly invited the state COVID-19 team on January 19 to conduct compulsory test on members and workers.

    The measure followed the reported spike in the number of cases of the pandemic in the state.

    The Speaker, Mr Uche Okafor, adjourned the house after a resolution for a break was reached during an emergency plenary.
    Okafor said: “The COVID-19 team in the Ministry of Health came last Thursday to take samples of lawmakers and staff members.
    “Unfortunately, when the results came out, some were negative but many were positive.

    “As an institution, we need to lead by example, hence we have decided that the assembly complex be shut for three weeks.

    “This is to allow the ministry to do contact tracing of those found to be positive for the virus.”

    The speaker said that it was expected that the complex, including the offices and surrounding, along with the houses of those who tested positive, would be fumigated.

    “There will be no plenary or committee work and we appeal that those who need to go on isolation should please do so,” he said.
    Also at plenary, the house screened and confirmed 21 persons nominated by Gov. Willie Obiano for appointment as Local Government Transition Committee Chairmen.

    The house approved a three-month tenure for the committee, subject to renewal or fresh appointments by the governor.

  • Varsity workers begin nationwide strike February 5

    Varsity workers begin nationwide strike February 5

    Non-teaching staff in universities will commence a nationwide strike from February 15, 2021 over the Federal Government’s handling of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System(IPPIS), sharing formula of the N40 billion earned academic allowances and non-payment of arrears of the new minimum wage.

    The workers, under the Joint Action Committee, which is made up of Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) had last week embarked on a three- day protest over government’s failure to honour the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed with the unions on 20th October, 2020.

    The committee said other contentious issues that informed the decision to embark on a nationwide industrial action include inconsistencies in IPPIS payment and the delay in the renegotiation of the FGN/ ASUU/SSANU 2009 Agreement.

    Others are the non-payment of retirement benefits to former members, non-constitution of visitation panels to universities, poor funding of universities, teaching staff usurping the headship of non-teaching units, among others.

    Addressing newsmen on Friday in Abuja, the JAC of SSANU and NASU led by the National President of SSANU, Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim and General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, said out of the seven issues under contention, only one was partially resolved.

    JAC said: “Out of the seven issues, only one has been partially resolved while the other six issues have not been attended to by government, three months after the Memorandum of Understanding was signed.”

    JAC noted that after the congresses held by its branches on Tuesday this week, 90 per cent of NASU members were in support of a strike and 10 percent stood against it. While 83 per cent of SSANU members were in support of embarking on strike, 11 per cent were against the strike and 6 percent were indifferent.

    “It is in line with the resolution of our members nationwide that the leadership of the joint action committee of NASU and SSANU hereby resolve as follows;

    “That members of NASU and SSANU shall embark on an indefinite, comprehensive and total strike with effect from midnight of Friday, 5th February 2021.

    “That two weeks’ notice effective from today, Friday 22nd January 2021, is hereby given to government and relevant stakeholders of this development,” the JAC president said.

  • Wike orders Rivers workers to stay home from today till further notice

    Wike orders Rivers workers to stay home from today till further notice

    The Rivers State Government has directed Civil Servants on Grade Levels 1 to 13 not to come to work from January 20 following the spike in the second wave of COVID-19 infections in the state, except those providing essential service.

    The directive was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Head of Service in the state, Rufus Godwin.

    According to the statement, officers from Grade levels 14 and above were directed to be on duty and assume full responsibilities for their offices till further notice.

    “Following the current increase in the number of COVID 19 cases, in the second wave of the pandemic, his Excellency, the Governor of Rivers State Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has directed all civil servants on salary scale 01-13 except those on essential duty to stay away from duty forthwith,” the statement partly read.

    “While officers from Grade levels 14 and above, should be on duty and assume full responsibilities for their offices till further notice.

    “Accordingly, all Permanent Secretaries and Heads of extra ministerial offices should ensure compliance with this directive and observe strictly all COVID19 protocols.

    “This directive which takes effect from Wednesday 20th January 2021 shall remain in force until his excellency directs otherwise, please.”

  • COVID-19 2nd wave: Lagos Govt. extends work-from-home order to Feb. 1

    COVID-19 2nd wave: Lagos Govt. extends work-from-home order to Feb. 1

    The Lagos State Government has further extended the work-from-home order to all state public servants on Grade Levels 14 and below from Monday, Jan. 18, 2021 to Monday, Feb. 1, 2021.

    Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu gave the directive in a circular signed by the Head of Service, Mr Hakeem Muri-Okunola, in Lagos on Saturday.

    The circular was issued to members of the State Executive Council and all heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

    Sanwo-Olu said that the extension was to curtail the spread of the second wave of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the state.

    He, however, said that the directive would exclude essential duty workers, as well as first responders.

    He enjoined all public servants to stay safe and keep adhering to all COVID-19 protocols, in order to rid the state of the pandemic in the shortest possible time.

    “Additionally, accounting officers are to ensure strict compliance with all extant directives aimed to guarantee physical/social distancing in the work place; through weekly preparation of Duty Rosters as considered germane to the effective service delivery of respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

    “All Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies are urged to observe the contents of this Circular for acquiescence and give it the deserved service-wide publicity,” he said.