Senior civil servants threaten strike over ‘insensitivity’ of defence ministry to workers’ plight

The union, in a press statement issued in Lagos and signed by its Secretary General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, threatened to embark on industrial action in order to remedy the situation.Lawal lamented the “culture” of denying workers their legitimate wages and allowances in the ministry, noting that thousands of civilian officers in its employ are […]

The union, in a press statement issued in Lagos and signed by its Secretary General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, threatened to embark on industrial action in order to remedy the situation.
Lawal lamented the “culture” of denying workers their legitimate wages and allowances in the ministry, noting that thousands of civilian officers in its employ are being owed promotion arrears from 2011 to 2014.
“Besides, even those promoted are not properly placed leading to a situation where officers promoted from grade level 10 to 12, to 13, and to 14 are still receiving salary of grade level 10 officers,” he said.
He added that other grievances of the union include “short-payment of salary to its members, non-payment of hanging salary (salary that could not be paid for inexplicable reasons), wrongful stoppage of salary and neglect of Lagos and outstations in training programme.”
The union’s scribe, who said there are also issues of non-payment of death benefits and packing/repatriation allowance, lamented that all effort by the workers to get the ministry to discuss the issues had been rebuffed.
He said on October 11, 2014, about 15,000 civilian employees under the auspices of its Joint Action Committee (JAC) gave the ministry a 21-day ultimatum to address the labour issues but had not received any response.
“At the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum, the JAC issued another 7-day notice of strike which expired on Monday 24th November, 2014.  Yet the management of Ministry of Defence has remained adamant.
“Since all avenues for dialogue have been exhausted without making any headway, the workers have no other alternative than to embark on strike,” he said.
He urged the ministry to pay its workers all their outstanding salaries and allowances since 2011 in order to avert the looming industrial action.