While the government of President Mohammadu Buhari is trying to sensitize workers in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies on its new policy of the Ease Of Doing Business in Nigeria, a major player needed by the government to achieve its goals, the Corporate Affairs Commission(CAC), on Tuesday 23rd May 2017 served the federal government a 21-day ultimatum after which the workers will go on indefinite nationwide strike action.
According to the CAC workers the notice was due to the refusal of its management to honour all it previous agreements dully entered with staff on two different occasions in 2013 and the tripartite agreement of February 2017 whiich has led to so much dissatisfaction, agitation and total lack of morale among staff of the Commission.
In the strike notice copied to the Office of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Head of Service of the Federation, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Minister Labour and Employment and a host of relevant government agencies, the CAC staff stated that, “it is on record that so many critical issues affecting the Commission and the staff as contained in the agreements are left unanswered. Some of these issues include among others:
1 Flagrant disregard of the Federal Government extant circular on Monetization on fringe benefits and allowances ref. no SGF/19/S.47/C.1/11/371 dated 27th June, 2003 in Public Civil Service which came into effect on 1st July, 2003. This is an established case of fraud against the Government and as such, we hereby demand full implementation of this circular in the Commission and a refund to the Government from the effective date.
2 Full implementation of the tripartite agreement of 17th February 2017.
3 Hundreds of Millions of Naira spent on ICT infrastructure (CAC Online) yet there is no commensurate improvement in service delivery. We hereby demand for urgent improvement in service delivery in the Commission.
Consequently, by the mandate of our staff members, the union hereby issues this Notice of a 21 day Ultimatum for a Nation-wide industrial strike with effect from 23rd May, 2017.
The notice was jointly signed by Com. M.I Kirfi and Com. Sadiq Shehu, the Chairman and Secretary of the union respectively.
