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PCC staff protest FG’s refusal to pay N872m arrears

Employees of Public Complaints Commission (PCC) have protested Federal Government’s failure to pay N872 million consequential adjustment of 18 months minimum wage arrears owed them. They took the protest to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and the National Planning Commission.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, calmed the protesting staff, assuring the union leaders of the government’s commitment to clear the backlog. She was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr. Aliyu Ahmed.

The minister told the protesters that she had already approved and granted authorisation to the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) to release the N872 million and 18 months arrears.

The Finance Minister confirmed that she has “gotten the alert for the payment it is now back to us here in the Ministry, so it is now left for us to finalise and make the payments to the PCC. I want to tell you that please give us the next 48 hours.” Members of the Nigerian Civil Service Union; Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) of the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) stormed the premises of the Federal Ministry of Finance, demanding for the payment of their entitlements.

Led by Isa Usman Degri, vice-chairman, Nigerian Civil Service Union (NCSU), lamented that staff of the commission were yet to start receiving the new minimum wage. According to him, “Minimum wage is yet to start at the Public Complaints Commission for the past 18 months. Many people were paid their arrears in December 2019. From 2019 December till now is nine months; it is yet to start in PCC.” He said they worked for “this country, we can never be excluded, it is unacceptable. We will continue to do this until we are heard.

If there are other agencies that have Nigerians as workers that are yet to start implementing, know that we are going to come back for them, but today we are here for PCC.” Degri said: “We have started negotiations with representatives of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), together with Labour and Employment; we have discussed and signed an agreement.”

However, after signing the agreement, he said: “Nobody called us from the Federal Ministry of Finance and OAGF; that was two weeks ago, we waited after two weeks, nobody is saying anything. We now deemed it fit to take a step further to come here and deliver a letter on our position.” The trade unions were demanding that N872 million and consequential adjustment of the 18 month should be released with immediate effect to enable activities resume at PCC offices nationwid

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