‘Poor welfare’: Workers paralyse activities at Oyo-Ita’s office

Federal Civil servants on Wednesday embarked on peaceful protest over “poor welfare, lack of training and working materials and slash in Sallah bonus”.

The workers under the Joint Union Association of Head of Service of the Federation, stormed block A of the federal secretariat, Abuja, to make known their grievances.

The union is made up of three unions: Nigeria Civil Service Union, Association of Senior Civil Service Union and the Secretaries Union at the office of the head of civil service (HoS) of the federation.

Senior members of staff were hindered from carrying out their jobs while activities were paralysed at the office of the Winifred Oyo-Ita, the HoS.

The workers said their Sallah allowance had been cut from N25,000 to N15,000, while in the last seven years, none of them had been trained and that out of the 16 lifts in the federal secretariat, only one was working.

They also complained that their promotion arrears have not been paid.

One of the protesting workers said during Sallah, Easter or Christmas celebrations, they get N25,000 as bonus but they have not received anything since the last Sallah.

The staff explained that they were expecting to be paid N50,000 this forthcoming Sallah (Eid-el-Kabir) because of the outstanding bonus, rather it has been slashed to N15,000.

Another worker lamented that there is no staff bus to convey staff to work, disclosing that working computers were retrieved and auctioned but had not been replaced.

“They have been promising but nothing, we buy working materials with our money to ensure the job is done, there are no materials in the store,” he said.

“We use our money to photocopy documents at business centres and the toilets are appalling, they need maintenance.”

Ikediashi Uzoh, president of the union, said the protest was not pre-planned as it broke out after a meeting with the management Wednesday morning.

“The management after a second meeting has agreed to meet the request of the staff immediately, hopefully by the end of this week,” he said.

Afolayan Olaniyi, permanent secretary, Common Services Office(CSO), office of the head of civil service of the federation (OHCSF), who addressed the protesting staff said that management had agreed to the terms of the union.

Olaniyi said Oyo-Ita had been contacted and she agreed to address the issues raised by union.