CAC Staff On Strike Over Unpaid Entitlements

Staff of the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, on Wednesday shut down business activities at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja to begin a three-day warning strike over alleged non-payment of nine per cent salary arrears.

It was gathered from the union’s Chairman Ibrahim Kirfi that the strike was called due to non-implementation of a tripartite agreement on huge salary disparity between the executive and non-executive staff.

Kirfi said the agreement was duly signed by the management of CAC, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the national leadership of the body, to resolve the pending salary arrears .

According to him, the agreement with the staff union and the management is way back  to 2013, adding that the management is not willing to implement it.

He added that if the agreement is not implemented before the end of the  three-days warning strike, they will continue the strike indefinitely.

Kiri argued that, “even if  There is no money in the commission, it does not mean there is no money at all because executives still go on foreign trips; all we are saying is that let the management see reason in commencing the payment of our entitlements.”

Kirfi said that the industrial disharmony between management of CAC and staff dated back to October 2013, when former President Goodluck Jonathan announced an increase in emoluments of staff by 53.37 per cent relativity pay.

Meanwhile, CAC Spokesperson, Godfrey Ike, said dialogue was ongoing between the union and management to resolve the pending issues.

Ike said management would not owe salaries because the commission regarded salaries as its greatest asset.

He said that right now, no staff member was owed any salary, adding that issues of salary were not controlled by the commission but Salary and Wages Commission.