• Says citizens will remain in poverty due to bad policies
• ASUP issues 21-day ultimatum over industrial dispute with govt
• Decries deployment of armed security personnel to campuses
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened to mobilise workers countrywide to defend workers’ contributions in the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and pension funds from government expropriation.
The NLC, in a statement yesterday at the end of its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja, expressed outrage at the alleged violation of workers’ social protection rights through the Federal Government’s diversion of 40 per cent of workers’ contributions to the national coffers as “revenue”, in flagrant violation of the statutes establishing the NSITF.
The workers’ union had met to deliberate on urgent issues affecting Nigerian workers, the trade union movement, and the state of the nation, considering the festering leadership crisis in the Edo State Council of the NLC, alarming developments in the NSITF, and the governance vacuum in PenCom, alongside the broader state of the nation.
Giving a seven-day ultimatum, the NLC threatened that the NSITF must account for and return all diverted funds, as it would no longer guarantee industrial peace in the sector.
The CWC, in a statement signed by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, demanded that the PenCom board must be properly constituted in full compliance with the law within seven working days from yesterday and must submit to the NLC a full status report of the funds within the same period.
SIMILARLY, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to resolve its grievances or face a strike action.
The President of ASUP, Shammah Kpanja, who disclosed this in Abuja yesterday, accused the government of insensitivity to the teachers’ plights. He said: “Given the non-committal disposition of the FME in committing to genuine dialogue and lack of will to execute previous resolutions on some of the items, our union’s NEC has resolved to issue a 21-day ultimatum to the government to address the issues satisfactorily”.
A failure to utilise this window may lead to the declaration of a trade dispute and withdrawal of services of our members across public polytechnics and monotechnics nationwide.”
ASUP accused the Federal Ministry of Education of refusing to reconvene the FME/ASUP Rapid Response Committee meetings, which were formed to address industrial relations challenges in the sector.
The issues in dispute include non-release of circular by the National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) to cover the Peculiar Academic Allowance; non-release of arrears of the 25/35 per cent salary review/non-implementation of the same in some states, among others.
