The Chief Commissioner, of the Public Complaints Commission, Abimbola Ayo Yusuf, was at the receiving end of the anger of staff of the agency as he was locked in the office during a protest over the non-payment of the Consolidated Legislative Salary approved by the National Assembly.
Recall that in 2021, the Senate upgraded the salary scale of staff of the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) from Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPASS) to Consolidated Legislative Salary Structure (CONLESS).
But due to the failure to pay, the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), PCC chapter, on June 2023, directed all staff of the commission nationwide to embark on an indefinite strike.
During Wednesday’s protest, the aggrieved workers refused to open the gate for policemen who were supposedly invited by the PCC management.
Chairman of PASAN, PCC chapter, Mrs. Margaret Ibeku, disclosed that they had not been paid CONLESS since it was implemented.
Wednesday protest is not the first at the commission.
Ibeku had said: “We were last year shifted to another salary structure, with effect from October, up till now it has not been implemented.
“Unfortunately for us, because we were moved over to this salary structure, this 40 percent increase in salary, we were also not paid. In fact, we are like people lost in the middle of nowhere. Where we left, we were not paid, where they moved us to, they are not paying us.
“We left from the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPASS), the salary structure that covers the majority of the public servants. We were moved over to legislative salary because 12 years ago, we were moved to the National Assembly.
“So our salaries were returned to the salary scale of the national assembly. Now pat us the scale of the National Assembly, they can’t; to pay us the scale of the public service new increase, they still cannot. We are just lost in the middle of nowhere.
“Also, for five years, they cannot pay the promotion arrears of our staff. We have been asking where the money has been going to. They claimed the money was not given to them, but to the best of our knowledge, they had the money.
“There have also been so many failed promises. So, after so many meetings and negotiation, we have to go on strike.”
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