Protest: CAC staff begin three days warning strike

THE amalgamation union of public corporations, civil service, technical and recreation service employees (AUPTRE) Corporate Affairs Commission’s branch, has commenced a three days warning strike as a means of getting government to implement an agreement which was reached between the Union and the Federal government in 2013.

Speaking during the protest to mark the beginning of the warning strike in Abuja yesterday, the commission Union Chairman, Comrade Ibrahim Kirfi stated that the strike action has commenced and the Union has locked the CAC gate thereby blocking customers, staffs, and other people from entering or coming out of the premises.

Kirfi lamented that, “the management has failed to implement the content of this agreement and has not shown any intention to do so. The long period of the non- implementation of the agreement for this long hiding under the pretext of unnecessary bureaucracy, management had in other different ways , continued to deprive staff of their right full entitlements while in the very eyes of these staff monies are spent on so many things unwarranted expenditure

According to the Chairman, “the last straw that broke the camel’s back and precipitated this strike action was the total refusal to attend to our demand after series of negotiations and consultations with management that later led to an issuance of a 7 day notice and another 14day notice of an industrial strike commencing 15th February 2017.

He noted that, “It is pertinent to state at this juncture that having examined the spending pattern of the commission, it is expedient to re-present our demands. They are implementation of the tripartite agreement especially with regards to the salary disparity between executive and non-executive staff.

The Union Chairman explained that after an emergency general staff meeting, the union got the endorsement of the entire staff, and a strike action was declared effective from the 15^th of February, 2017.

Other reasons raised by the Union for their strike action includes, payment arrears of 9 % increase from January 2014, payment of staff housing, suspension of all foreign trips by the executive until staff entitlements are settled and prioritizing the Commission’s expenditures on critical needs.

Reacting, the Commission’s spokesperson, Godfrey Ike stated that CAC takes its staffs as her primary asset and would deliberately not implement agreement reached between the Union and the Commission.

“The commission manages its resources efficiently, presently no member of staff is being owned salary, and the issue of mismanagement is not there at all”. Adding that, the deduction of 9% arrears raised by the union is not an issue of the moment as the commission does not fix salaries.

He noted further that, the CAC management is very magnanimous, staff welfare is always top priorities, on training and others issues raised by the union the commission has fulfilled all, those not updated are being worked on. The commission has been dialoguing with the union for days now on this strike issue.