Federal Civil servants on
Wednesday embarked on peaceful protest over “poor welfare, lack of training and
working materials and slash in Sallah bonus”.
The workers under the Joint Union
Association of Head of Service of the Federation, stormed block A of the
federal secretariat, Abuja, to make known their grievances.
The union is made up of three
unions: Nigeria Civil Service Union, Association of Senior Civil Service Union
and the Secretaries Union at the office of the head of civil service (HoS) of
the federation.
Senior members of staff were
hindered from carrying out their jobs while activities were paralysed at the
office of the Winifred Oyo-Ita, the HoS.
The workers said their Sallah
allowance had been cut from N25,000 to N15,000, while in the last seven years,
none of them had been trained and that out of the 16 lifts in the federal
secretariat, only one was working.
They also complained that their
promotion arrears have not been paid.
One of the protesting workers
said during Sallah, Easter or Christmas celebrations, they get N25,000 as bonus
but they have not received anything since the last Sallah.
The staff explained that they
were expecting to be paid N50,000 this forthcoming Sallah (Eid-el-Kabir)
because of the outstanding bonus, rather it has been slashed to N15,000.
Another worker lamented that
there is no staff bus to convey staff to work, disclosing that working
computers were retrieved and auctioned but had not been replaced.
“They have been promising but
nothing, we buy working materials with our money to ensure the job is done,
there are no materials in the store,” he said.
“We use our money to photocopy
documents at business centres and the toilets are appalling, they need
maintenance.”
Ikediashi Uzoh, president of the
union, said the protest was not pre-planned as it broke out after a meeting
with the management Wednesday morning.
“The management after a second
meeting has agreed to meet the request of the staff immediately, hopefully by
the end of this week,” he said.
Afolayan Olaniyi, permanent
secretary, Common Services Office(CSO), office of the head of civil service of
the federation (OHCSF), who addressed the protesting staff said that management
had agreed to the terms of the union.
Olaniyi said Oyo-Ita had been
contacted and she agreed to address the issues raised by union.
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