Staff union of the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, in Abuja on
Wednesday shut down business activities at the commission’s
headquarters as the members began a three-day warning strike over
alleged non-payment of salary arrears.
Chairman of the union, Ibrahim Kirfi, told the News Agency of
Nigeria that the strike was due to non-implementation of a tripartite
agreement on huge salary disparity between the executive and
non-executive staff.
Mr. Kirfi said that the agreement was duly signed by the management
of CAC, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the national
leadership of the body, to resolve the pending salary arrears .
According to him, the agreement with the staff union and the
management is way back to 2013, adding that the management is not
willing to implement it.
“Today offices are locked until our demands are met, if these
three-days warning strikes expire and they are not forthcoming and did
not agree with our demands, we will continue the strike indefinitely.
“Earlier, we have had series of consultation with them (management), both formal and informal, written and verbal.
“Everybody knows the economic situation of the country because the
performance of the economy is poor; we know Nigeria was in recession in
2016 and there is no money.
“There is no money in the commission does not mean there is no money
at all because executives still go on foreign trips; all we are saying
is that let the management see reason in commencing the payment of our
entitlements.
“Even if it is five persons that will be paid, we will know that there is commitment from their side.
“We can support that as money is coming in gradually they will be
able to pay us all our entitlements, but they are not even willing to
pay us at all.
“More than two years into the implementation of the agreement, yet nothing,” Mr. Kirfi said.
He said that it was necessary for the management to pay the arrears
from January 2014 to date, adding that if the demands were not met, the
strike would continue indefinitely from Monday.
Mr. Kirfi said that the industrial disharmony between management of
CAC and staff dated back to October 2013, when former President Goodluck
Jonathan announced an increase in emoluments of staff by 53.37 per cent
relativity pay.
According to him, the agreement has been reached that an increase of
15 per cent and 35 per cent be made in favour of the executive and
non-executive staff.
The CAC spokesperson, Godfrey Ike, said that dialogue was ongoing
between the union and management to resolve the pending issues.
Mr. Ike said that management would not owe salaries because the commission regarded salaries as its greatest asset.
He said that right now, no staff member was owed any salary, adding
that issues of salary were not controlled by the commission but by the
Salaries and Wages Commission.
“Management of CAC will go extra mile to ensure that all entitlements due to its staff were paid to them
“There is an agency of government that handles issues of salary and
wages and these issues have been presented to them and the commission is
still following them up.
“This strike is totally uncalled for because we are still talking and even at this moment dialogue is still going on.
“On training, when we get approval as at when due and everybody goes
for training; so in terms of welfare, I think the commission has been
fair to ensure that no staff member is denied of any right.
“The commission itself cannot not just implement payment unless it gets approval,” Mr. Ike said.
Source: NAN