Labour faults NIMC claims on 600 ‘fake staff’

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has refuted claims by the management of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) that there are 600 ‘fake staff’ in its payroll.

Alade Lawal, the association’s secretary general, who faulted NIMC, described the claim as hoax and a ploy to sack about 1,000 senior staff it had penciled down for rationalisation.

He alleged that “for inexplicable reason”, the NIMC management had started a phased retrenchment of many of its staff which had so far led to the weeding out of 5,000 junior workers from the commission.

“After the sack of about 5,000 junior staff, the NIMC management decided to also retrench 1,000 senior employees. It was at that point that the association intervened but since the NIMC management shunned all efforts by the association to resolve the dispute amicably, the association took the matter to the National Industrial Court for adjudication,” he said.

The secretary general added that the case is being handled by Enobong Etteh of Rocheba Chambers, an expert in labour jurisprudence.

Speaking further, Lawal said, “Initially, the management of the NIMC stated that the senior staff it intends to dispense with are pool officers who should be returned to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation,” and when NIMC management could not push that position further, it began to campaign that the 1,000 senior employees do not possess requisite skills and competences and/or have irregularities in their records.

“How can the staff who have served the nation diligently for 20-33 years be said not to be fit to work in the commission? The truth of the matter is that some top management staff of the commission want to throw 1,000 senior employees into the job market in order to replace them with their relations and friends as they did after sacking the junior workers,” the association alleged.