Civil servants protests poor welfare, slash in Sallah bonus, others

Federal Civil servants on Wednesday embarked on peaceful protest over poor welfare, lack of training and working materials and slash in Sallah bonus at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja.

The protest which held at Block A of the secretariat as senior members of staff were hindered by the protesters from carrying out their jobs, paralysed activities at the section of the Federal Secretariat, Abuja housing the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

The workers under the Joint Union Association of Head of Service of the Federation, said their Sallah allowance has 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, while promotion arrears have not been paid.

The joint union was made up of three unions namely: Nigeria Civil Service Union, Association of Senior Civil Service Union and the Secretaries Union at the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

According to one of the protesting staff, who pleaded for anonymity, they were usually paid N25,000 as bonus every Sallah, Easter or Christmas celebrations but they have not received anything since the last Sallah (Eid-el-Fitr).

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 of the staff lamented that, there was 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.

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

Mr Ikediashi Uzoh, President of the Joint 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.

The Permanent Secretary, Common Services Office(CSO), Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), Afolayan Olaniyi, who addressed the protesting staff said that management had agreed to the terms of the union.

Olaniyi said that, they contacted the Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, who was at the Federal Executive Council meeting and she agreed to their demands.

According to him, Oyo-Ita had agreed to address the issues raised by union.