Workers’ strike cripples operations at CAC

Staff of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on Tuesday embarked on an industrial action over non-payment of allowances.

The workers on the platform of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE) also cited salary disparity, the imbalance in staff cost and poor welfare conditions as reasons for embarking on the strike.

The action led to the closure of the commission and prevented the public from conducting transactions in Abuja.

Debo Adeniran, executive chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), advised the federal government to take steps to address the situation “for the sake of industrial harmony and respect for legitimate rights of workers”.

Adeniran called on Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to visit the CAC and assess the “real situation on ground.

“Unfortunately, our calls were apparently ignored, just like the pleas and petitions by AUPCTRE which also called for urgent and proactive steps to nip all problems that lay ahead on the path of its executive order and strike at the CAC in their buds,” he said.

“We demand that the federal government takes responsibility for the present crisis by immediately swinging into action for the sake of industrial harmony and respect for legitimate rights of workers organised under AUPCTRE.

“This imbroglio must linger no further than this counterproductive stage; amicable resolutions of the knotty issues involved must be found. We are particularly calling on Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to take the keen interest in the crisis like he has been over-sighting and attending to flashpoints of discontent and maladministration in the country.

“We suggest that like he visited the N-Power recently, the acting president should do the same with the CAC to assess the real situation on the ground.”