The Nigeria Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is in troubled waters as staff union of the organisation raised nine issues which they termed the "pains of the CAC workers" that must be addressed by the management to prevent impending industrial action.
The workers, under the aegis of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), in a letter addressed to the Registrar General of CAC and dated 18th December 2020, gave the Commission 21 days to address the issues raised.
The letter titled Notice of a 21-day ultimatum and signed by Musa Ukpo, National acting General Secretary of AUPCTRE, accused the CAC management of injustice, anti-workers' posture, pettiness and victimization.
"The issues at stake are self opinionated restrictions of vacancies on staff promotions against the recommendations of Committee on Organogram.
"Unjustified barring of certain category of staff from writing promotion examination against the recommendations of committee on organogram.
"Stoppage of all staff loans (Internal and External as well as cooperative societies).
"Stoppage of welfare proposals (workload has increased has increased yet no wage review in the last 10 years.
"Hasty, draconian and unilateral decision making leadership style.
"Denial of earned 2019 promotion arrears.
"Over attentiveness to pettiness, suppression of freedom of expression and constructive criticism as enshrined in section 39 of the Constitution of rthe Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as chapter2 (e) of the commission’s condition of service by using the instrument of vindictive transfer/redeployments.
"Punishment of staff by stopping their salaries , even before queries were issued during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic.
"Lingering injustice against staff," part of the notice read.
The union, which expressed deep concern over the behaviour of the CAC Registrar General, Garba Abubakar, said the Commission has up to 11 January 2021, to resolve the issues at stake as failure to do so will result to industrial crisis.
“Arising from the above and in discharging our responsibility based on responsive and responsible Trade Union, guided by the principles of collective bargaining , due process, Public Service Rules and strict adherence to the Union and Constitution of Nigeria, the Union is hereby given the management of CAC a twenty-one (21) day ultimatum starting from Monday, 21 December, 2020 to address all issues raised above, in order to douse already tensed industrial relations atmosphere and possibly avert a looming industrial crisis in CAC," the union said.
Also speaking on the development, CAC-AUPCTRE chairman, Ibrahim Kirfi, said it was unbelievable that the Commission which boasts of having over N2 billion could not pay staff their pending arrears.
Kirfi also picked holes on the manner the Registrar General has hijacked the role of Human Resources (HR) by directly issuing query to staff in issues that affect him.
He said: "You directly issued query to staff by hijacking HR role and directed for his immediate suspension when the law expects a judge not to be a party in his own case.
" As a leader, you openly made promises, refused to fulfil those promises and yet expects loyalty from staff who know their rights and how to pursue those rights.
"You formed a team of bootlickers who specialize in misguiding and distancing you away from staff, feed your ears with lies to remote-control you and settle scores with their rivals yet you couldn’t fathom.
"The same ladder you speedily rose to be what you are today all of a sudden becomes an abnormal way and so must be removed and stagnate everybody from growth and career progression yet you expect the best from us.
"In this same system when in 2017 staff became DDs with 66per ceng here we are when staff got over 80per cent yet they couldn’t even become SM talkless of PM even when their cut off marks were 68 and 70 respectively(I think Harvard should salute CAC for that).
"In an era where staff should be advised to invest wisely for future yet staff investment became the reason why personal loans are suspended even when adults are entitled to design how they use the proceeds of their labour unquestionably.
"With these and lots more issues of direct contradictions, I think it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness. We haven’t seen the intelligence we assumed we will see in the leadership of this Commission with regard to leadership skills, ability to manage complex organizations and get results without coercion and/or intimidation with less supervision.
"We will not allow anybody to turn the Commission into his/her private property. There are standard rules guiding government agencies and those rules must be obeyed. There are higher authorities responsible for such compliance and we will continue to liaise with them to ensure that CAC is not turned into a garrison."
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