Workers

The All Workers Convergence(AWC)has took a swipe at the Federal Government in Nigeria for allowing the release of the 2018 Directorate level Promotion examination results when the major issue of the new national minimum wage was yet to be resolved.

The AWC's position was made known by its National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze.

 ''Government has released the July 2018  promotion examination results for senior civil servants and at the same time refused to implement the new national minimum wage. Therefore,government will end up cheating the Nigerian workers, if the new national minimum wage is not implemented as the promotion is also implemented''.

''More so, the results were greeted  with mixed feelings as most f the workers are not happy that they were not promoted  and so they have laid their complaints with their various unions in protest against the results that seem to favor a few to the detriment of most civil servants. The AWC is calling on the different industrial unions to intervene in the  recent promotion examination results just released by the Federal Civil Service Commission.''

''''It is also important to note that as far as the new national minimum wage is  concerned, Nigerians workers are no longer expectant, workers have surrendered their fate and they have lost hope for a just wage from this government vis-a-vis their thinking that governance has been abandoned for frivolities. Workers are only waiting for the worst to come, especially in the case of a labour movement  that has compromised'', Comrade Emelieze lamented.

 The 2018 Directorate level promotion exercise results indicated  that 2,932 senior civil servants were promoted.

Of this number, 327 were from  the office of the Head  Civil Service f the Federation, while 70 were promoted from  Senior Grade levels 16 to 17.

In all those promoted were from SGL 14 to 15, 15 to 16 and 16 to 17.

Workers in Zimbabwe have rejected government's additonal pay of 180 million Zimbabwe dollars($21 million) to cover the seconds half of 2019.

The workers hinged their rejection of the amount on the rising inflation.

The amount which would cater for  309,000 civil servants, would see each worker  receiving a paltry extra $11.28 each month.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities(SSANU) has called on the Federal Government to release the earned allowances due to its members to avoid industrial disharmony.

This call was made by the National Vice President of SSANU, who doubles as the Chairman of the association in the West zone, Comrade Alfred Jimoh.

‘’It is equally important to let Nigerians know that the contentious issue of earned allowance is yet to be resolved in the Federal Universities despite the claim of the Federal Government to have released 25 Billion Naira to all unions in the Federal Universities to take care of the Earned allowances of all staff since last year. It is disheartening to note that as we speak, government is yet to release the said fund to the universities.’’

‘’Furthermore, SSANU wishes to reiterate that the money should be released to Universities and not Unions for the purpose of paying to individual staff, since the Bursary of each university has the record of staff and should be in the best position to know what each staff is entitled to as Earned allowance,’’ Comrade Jimoh stated.

The All Workers Convergence(AWC) has warned that any proposal by the Federal Government on the new national minimum wage that does not meet the expectations of Nigerin workers would be rejected.

The AWC gave this warning through its National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze.

''It must be noted that any proposal by the FederalGovernment on the new  national minimum wage that does not meet the expectations of  Nigerian workers would be rejected and visited with protests and strikes. The AWC therefeore calls on government to retrace its steps and fine tune the table to reflect public servcie  rules and regulations. The AWC also calls  on workers at the state level and their labour unions to resist and protest against any state government that attempts  to pay below the legally accepted new national minimum wage . Labour is called upon to give a final notice of June ending for the implementation of the new national minimum wage or else the labour unions should declare a nationwide strike action from 1st of July, 2019'', Comrade Emelieze concluded.

Non Academic Staff in Nigerian universities have blamed the Federal Government for their poor renumeration and conditions of service.

The position of the workers was made known by the Chairman of the Non Academic Staff Union(NASU) University of Ibadan branch, Comrade Oulwasegun Arojo in a chat with Poverty Line.

''We are contending with so many cahlleneges, in the last few years we have lost so many of our colleagues, as a result of poor renumeration and poor conditions of service. This is due to lack of sufficient funds. The Federal Government is  to blame, not the managements of the universities''.

''We are hoping that once we come on board again, we shall step up efforts in the struggle to liberate our members from the challenges, presently confronting them'', Conmrade Arojo concluded.

The Zimbabwean Government has said that any of its female workers who got pregnant less than a year after employment will not be entitled to maternity leave with full pay.

This disclosure was made by the  Minister of Justice,   Ziyambi Ziyambi when he appeared before Senators in  the Upper House recently.