UF
Organized labour,under the aegis of Association Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has restated its opposition to the stoppage of payment of gratuity to retired civil servants.
It has therefore, charged the incoming national government to reactivate payment of gratuity and prescribe a living a national minimum wage as the threshold of the 10th National Assembly.
The Secretary-General of the Association, Comrade Joshua Apebo, who stated these in an exclusive interview with Daily Champion, on the state of the nation, weekend in Lagos, decried the non challant stance of most state governments towards the payment of the N30,000 minimum wage.
He disagreed with the International Monetary Fund,IMF that the Federal Government should increase taxes, among other issues.
Apebo recalled that prior to the Pension Reform Act 2014, civil servants were paid gratuity upon retirement, stressing that there is a lot of difference between gratuity and pension.
He stated that while the Federal Government no longer pays retired civil servants gratuity,politicians who spend 3 to 4 years in office are paid gratuity while government agencies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN, Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, NIMASA still pay gratuity.
According to Apebo,Section 173 of the Constitution mandates the government to pay gratuity to her workers as severance package irrespective of the Pension Act.
“If politicians who spend barely 4 years in office are paid gratuity,where is the moral justification to deny a worker who spent 35 ,years in service his/her gratuity ?” Apebo querried .
On the minimum wage sager, the ASCSN Scribe said: “As we speak,some governors are still struggling to do the needful.This is rather painful and disappointing. The most painful part is that the same governors who have refused to pay this meager amount, enjoy the best healthcare (home and abroad),food,houses, cars and all sort,basically on taxpayers money.
” I want to use this opportunity to appeal to their conscience to put themselves in the shoes of a family of five, feeding on a salary less than the approved minimum wage”.
On IMF’s recent proposal to the Federal Government to increase taxes and curtail external borrowing, Apebo said:” Such recommendations,if carried out, will further deepen the woes of the already impoverished citizens of Nigeria”.
