Low Income Workers Ask Unions for Waiver on Check off dues as Federal Govt workers shut down Secretariat in Oyo state
- By solomon2day
- On 29/07/2019
- In Special Report
Federal Government workers whose take home pay are insignificant have called on their various unions to waive the mandatory check off dues deducted from their salaries monthly.
The workers who made this call incognito for fear of victimization, cut across most of the Federal establishments in Nigeria.
They made their position known on Friday in an interactive session in Abuja.
‘’Our monthly salaries are nothing to write home about and for several years our unions have continued to deduct check off dues for our meager salaries on a monthly basis. They should have pity on us by stopping to deduct these check off dues.’’
‘’If you ask us for the benefits of been members of our various unions, this will be difficult to pin point, this is the precarious situation we find ourselves’’, the workers lamented.
In recent times, workers in Nigeria have been agitating for executives of their unions to justify the monthly deductions of check off dues from the source of payment of their salaries.
Thousands of workers have been unjustly treated, demoted and dismissed by their employers, without any meaningful interventions from their ‘’elected’’ executives.
Corruption is the trend in most of these unions, at the national, state council, chapter and unit level, the issue of accountability has been the unanswered question.
To the chagrin of the workers, elections into a sizable number of these unions are by consensus, selection or imposition, with the covert backing of government.
Meanwhile Federal Government workers under the aegis of All Workers Convergence(AWC) in Oyo state on Monday shut the two entrances into the Federal Secretariat Complex at Ikolaba, Ibadan, to press home their demand for immediate implementation of the new national minimum wage.
As early as 7.00 am in the morning, the workers had took positions outside the entrance, to ensure that vehicles and visitors were not allowed into the Secretariat complex.
Workers were noticed discussing the development in groups.
They chanted solidarity songs, while accusing the executives of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria(ASCSN) of trading the demand of workers for monetary gains.
In a chat, with Poverty Line the National Coordinator of the AWC, Comrade Andrew Emelieze disclosed that the decision to proceed on an indefinite industrial action was reached in a congress by the workers.
‘’By the special grace of God we have shut down this place indefinitely and this is the decision of workers in a congress organized by the All Workers Convergence. They resolved that the non-implementation f the new national minimum wage is a set back to Nigerian workers. And until it is implemented the Federal Secretariat, Ibadan and all Federal Departments and Agencies shall remain shut. We are also protesting against the general insecurity in the land, increasing rate of suicide, high rate of unemployment and poor governance.
On the demand of low income workers, Comrade Emelieze had this to say ‘’as workers they have the right to air their feelings, though the check off dues is automatic, if they can pursue the cause to a logical conclusion, this will wake up labor leaders from their slumber. This has proven that there is no more free check off dues, but rather labor leaders must work and account for such check off dues they collect.’’
Government Minimum Wage Nigeria