Our ordeal as DTHA labour leaders, by Afure, PASAN PRO

                                                                                                                 INTERVIEW - LABOUR

·         It’s wrong to cut workers’ allowance

·         Can’t explain why NLC is not active in Delta State

·         Individual unions now carry their crosses

(Banner Media Network last month had an encounter with the Public Relations officer (PRO) of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), Delta state chapter, Comrade Egalase Afure). In that encounter, the PRO fielded questions on issues affecting labour. Below are details of the interview)

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Q: We have heard grumblings among civil servants in Delta state against the removal of the Special Duty allowance (SDA) by the State Government. Interactions with some civil servants show that they are bitter, and angry because of the removal of the SDA. As a union leader why is this so?

Ans: That SDA is actually called Legislative Duty allowance in the House of Assembly. As the first arm of government, we have the legislative duty allowance which is now called SDA paid to legislative staff all over the federation. It was an agreement that was reached between the national body of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), and the National Assembly. It actually was supposed to be 35 percent of your annual basic salary. But during the regime of our former governor, James Ibori, an approval was given for 25 percent for the legislative staffs; 25 percent of their basic salary was approved. Instead of the 35 percent, the union accepted so that the work of the legislators can move on. So, the legislative duty allowance is a special allowance meant for special functions that are performed by the legislative staffs. You will agree with me that during budget presentation, and oversight functions of the various committees they work beyond 4 0’clock in the evening. They even work during public holidays and during weekends as the case may arise. So that necessitated this legislative duty allowance.

It is not paid only in Delta state. It is paid all over the 36 states that have State House of assembly. It is a circular from the National Assembly (NASS). So, we were surprised when we came to work one day and saw that it was removed. That angered the staffs. And before now, we heard the rumour that it was going to be removed. So, here in PASAN at the local lever, we were trying to seek audience with the Speaker. But I don’t know the orientation that the Speaker has. He does not want to meet with labour leaders. He will always refer labour leaders to the Clerk of the House. And there are certain things that the Clerk can do. We know the limits of her powers. It is not every matter that the clerk can handle because the Clerk is the accounting officer, while the Speaker is the head of the legislature, the number three man in the State. So, it is supposed to be an advantage to the union to discuss with the Speaker, to make things easy for the staffs.

The refusal of the Speaker to see union leaders led to the demonstration that took place about three weeks ago at the complex, immediately we saw that the SDA was removed. And that brought him down from his office, and he sought audience with the union. We made our positions clear to him, that by the time we receive March 2016 pay slips, and SDA has not been restored, we will close down the office. And we mean it. 

It is not as if the union has been lingering away. The union has been very active. But it is because of the recent management style that we have; not wanting to meet with labour leaders. That is why you saw that the matter rose to that extent. If not, the labour executives in the state House of Assembly never wanted any form of demonstration. Unionism has grown beyond that level of demonstration. What is done is to negotiate. When there are challenges, you bring them before your management team for the purpose of resolving matters. It is better for labour leaders. But a situation whereby you have a management team that does not want to see labour, then the only option is to go on strike.

But thank God he took action immediately; he referred the matter to the House Committee on Establishment, headed by Hon (Prince ) Erijo, who in his own wisdom summoned the Head of Service. And there was a meeting between the HOS, the House committee on Establishment, and PASAN executives. So, we sat, and on that day, the HOS denied any knowledge of the removal of SDA. But when he saw the pay slip, he was showing surprise. And he promised that it was going to be restored by the end of March 2016. And Hon. Erijo, leader of the House committee on Establishment made the HOS to promise that the arrears of the deducted SDA will be paid. Because he said what they were doing was revalidation; that they did not stop the SDA. That they wanted to revalidate, to ascertain those who are supposed to be involved in the payment. So, the HOS promised that this March, 2016, it is going to be restored back to staff salary. And we are waiting. (Editor’s note: The SDA has since been restored by Delta state Government as promised.)

There are a lot of challenges facing the union here. We have series of dead staffs. You can’t imagine that House of Assembly staffs who died in the past six, seven years, the entitlements that are supposed to be paid to their family members as contained in the civil service rule, have not been paid to them. Normally, in the civil service, if a staff dies, it’s the responsibility of the management of where he or she is working to pay for the coffin, ambulance, do the necessary burial arrangements. There are certain things the DTHA is supposed to do, but they didn’t do it. It’s like they don’t regard the staff. So, a lot of issues and the SDA is just one.

Don’t be surprised to hear that up till now, the Speaker has still refused audience with the staff union soon after that strike. So, we are waiting. If we don’t see the SDA restored in line with all the other matters, maybe we may end up closing up the Assembly.

Q: When Governor Okowa came into power he cried out that the state of the finance of the state was nothing to write home about. It appears he is seeking for ways to get funds, and the SDA may first be one of the ways…

Ans: (Cuts in). Cutting the staffs’ SDA is not the right way to get funds to manage government affairs. It’s not the right thing for the governor to do. Start cutting civil servants’ salaries. It is wrong. Let me tell you one thing; we are doing a study in the House of Assembly Service commission; we have seven members as commissioners. The Chairman, first member, second member, like that. There are about seven of them. We’ve done a study and we’ve seen that their take home pay a month is above N4million for the seven of them. And we have 102 staffs in the service commission. Their take home pay is about N7million. You check it. Seven members in the Assembly Service commission, and 102 staffs. Look at the difference. Seven point something million for 102 staffs, and four point something million for seven members who are commissioners. Does it reflect that this state does not have money? And we saw on the pages of newspapers, appointments here and there. SAs on this, SSAs on that. We are not saying that politicians should not be appointed. But the size of the executive should be cut down a little. If you are saying that there is no money, then reduce the numbers of SAs and SSAs. There are a lot of them that don’t have portfolios. But they have positions as SAs; are you telling me that the governor is not paying them?

Just as he is dealing with civil servants, is that how he is cutting down the allowances of politicians? I don’t think that is the right thing. If we know that the executive is cutting down on its own expenses then we will know that there is no money.

Q: What is the state of the unions in Delta state? I ask this question because PASAN is an affiliate of NLC. Recently, the NLC national mobilized support and carried out protest against the increase in electricity tariffs. We didn’t see Delta NLC participate in it. Does it mean that the unions in Delta State are happy with the tariff hikes, and so will not support NLC national? Is NLC in Delta State saying that Deltans are ok with the tariff increase?

Ans: My take is that I don’t know what is going on with the NLC in Delta State, because I am not too involved with them. The reason is that there was a time we led a protest in this state. Though they came to support us, but at the end of the day, they abandoned us. So, I see the situation in Delta State whereby individual affiliate bodies of NLC are carrying their own crosses. I am using the PASAN experience. Because the challenges we’ve been having, we’ve been reaching out to NLC in the state, yet we don’t see anything positive they are doing for us.

Even when that strike was called, I was opportune to meet with NLC Secretary, and I asked him: “Why did we not participate in the national protest against electricity tariff increase?” He told me they participated, but I know that they did not participate. Because if they participated, and as the PRO of PASAN, I ought to have been there. But I was not there. There was no directive; I did not receive any directive from the state branch of NLC to go on that protest that was done against the electricity companies.

I told the NLC Secretary that there are a lot of expectations from the workers in the state from NLC. And the NLC is not living up to that expectation. When the SDA matter came up, we met them, and they did not do anything. So we had to carry our cross by ourselves. I don’t know why NLC in Delta State acted that way.