The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has shut the 104 Federal Government Colleges.
This followed a nationwide strike embarked on by education officers in the Federal Ministry of Education and the Inspectorate departments under the association’s umbrella, to prevail on the Federal Government to pay them their salary and promotion arrears.
In a statement in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, at the weekend, signed by the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, ASCSN said the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Education and the Inspectorate departments would also be shut from today.
“The issues in dispute include but not limited to the non-payment of outstanding promotion arrears from 2007 to 2010 and the balance of 2011 promotion arrears, promotion arrears from 2012 to 2013, unpaid workers’ salaries for July, August, September, and October 2013, end-of-year incentives, non-payment of the first 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, 2010 Head of Service-organised mandatory training allowance, repatriation allowance, duty tour allowance, non-placement of promoted officers, etc,” the union said.
It said the Federal Ministry of Education admitted that N1.8 billion was released to it this year to settle liabilities including salaries and allowances.
ASCSN wondered if the money had entered into a “voice mail” as usual.
“On August 20, the leadership of the union met the permanent secretary and other top officials of the ministry and they promised that arrears of promotion would be paid on or before August 31.
“However, the leadership gave the ministry till September 12 to effect the payment,” the statement said.
The union noted that when it became apparent that the ministry had not started paying promotion arrears and outstanding salaries , the national leadership of the association wrote a letter, including a reminder to their last agreement.
It said the ministry fixed a meeting with the association for September 17 at 12pm.
“When the leadership turned up for the meeting at the headquarters of the ministry, neither the minister, the permanent secretary nor any top ministry official was available,” ASCSN added.
I am calling on the Federal Government to please pay the senior civil servants arrears and let our children go back to school. Education is a bedrock of our the future leaders our children to be precise.
ReplyDeleteEnough is enough if you really care about this country.