NAN staff protest unpaid allowances, picket Abuja office

The staff of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) have embarked on a strike to protest unpaid allowances and reduced government subvention.

The staff were seen carrying placards and chanting anti-government songs.

One of the allegations raised by the staff was payment of two months transport allowance since the beginning of the year.

Suleiman Haruna, the chairman, Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees (AUCPTRE) NAN branch, said the agency is grossly underfunded as their subvention has been cut to N12 million from N100 million.

“We have appealed to the federal government and management of the agency to look into staff welfare, better remuneration and improved conditions of service commensurate with the level of enormous work put in by the staff of the agency,” he said.

“The situation in NAN is so dire that the morale of staff is low; there is a lackadaisical attitude to work and most staff are indebted to one bank, microfinance or cooperative societies in order to make ends meet even after adjusting lifestyles to the pervading situation in the country.”

Yetunde Bada, NUJ chairman, NAN branch, said there were shortfalls in the payment of promotion arrears of 2014, 2015 and 2016.

“The step differences that were to be paid staff was also wrongly computed,” she said.

“Staff of foreign offices that returned to the country are still being owed; some of them returned more than 8 years ago”