FG faces fresh battle as federal civil servants give strike notice

The Federal Government could be in for another battle with organised labour as federal civil servants under the aegis of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has given strike notice over the nonpayment of their October and November salaries.

The strike notice is coming at the time the Federal Government is also battling to get oil workers under the umbrella of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) to back down on their ongoing indefinite strike.

As at the time of filing in this report on Thursday, representatives of PENGASSAN were still meeting with the Federal Government team in Abuja to find an amicable way out of the strike. Two of the major reasons for the oil workers’ strike are the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and government’s inability to embark on turnaround maintenance (TAM) of the nation’s refineries.

Alade Lawal, the secretary general of the ASCSN, who gave the strike notice, said, “The association has concluded plan to call members in the entire public service out on the streets unless the outstanding salaries for October and November as well as December are paid to workers immediately.”

He said “as we write, information reaching the union from informed quarters indicates that about 30 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) will not pay December 2014 salaries to their employees. It is very unfortunate that since October 2014, the federal ministries of agriculture, education, works, labour and productivity as well as a host of other MDAs have not paid salaries to their workers,” the union lamented.

The ASCSN lamented that the reality on ground was that thousands of civil servants and their dependants would celebrate this year’s Christmas and New Year in sorrow, calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene on the matter and ensure the workers are paid their October, November and December salaries before the festivity.

“We call on the government to use the N9.2 billion earmarked to buy stoves for “rural women” to offset the October and November salaries as well as that of December 2014. We cannot understand how N9.2 billion would be spent on stoves while workers who toil daily to keep the wheels of government functioning cannot be paid their meagre salary,” the union stated.

It recalled that in 2014 over 40 MDAs could not pay December 2013 salaries to their workers and when the union raised the alarm, government officials were quick to deny the development prompting the association to publish the names of the MDAs that were involved in the non-payment of salary saga.

“Based on this sad experience of last year, one would have expected that serious steps would have been taken to ensure that the ugly scenario did not repeat itself. Unfortunately, we are now back to square one. Workers, to say the least, are very sad as they can no longer meet their immediate needs as a result of refusal of government to pay them their salaries,” the ASCSN said.

In a reaction, the government has faulted the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, saying its claim is full of falsehood and distortions about current status of the payment of federal civil servants.

In a statement by Paul C Nwabuikwu, special adviser to the coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance, the government said “the group is fast earning a reputation as a tool of political groups ready to deploy scurrilous falsehood against the policies and programmes of the Federal Government. It clearly does not represent the interest of the vast majority of hard working and professional civil servants.”

The statement said contrary to the group’s statement, it is absolutely untrue that “government has not been able to pay thousands of civil servants their October and November salaries”.

It said the overwhelming majority of civil servants are getting their salaries regularly.

“The true situation, as stated by the CME during the presentation of the 2015 budget proposal yesterday (Wednesday) is that there was a delay in paying the salaries of some civil servants in some ministries due to a technical glitch which affected the IPPIS system through which payments are made.”

“Delays were also caused by some MDAs using money set aside for salaries to pay allowances without consultation with the Budget Office.

“As CME has promised, the issues are being resolved and all civil servants will be paid their salaries before the end of December.”