Staff of the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) have embarked on a 7 days warning strike to drive home their demand for payment of minimum wage.
Staff members staged a protest at the entrance of the commission’s headquarters at Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama Abuja.
Comrade Ogah Folorunsho, unit Chairman, Civil Service Union in PCC in an exclusive interview with African News Today, said, “We are protesting the non-implementation of minimum wage and payment of accrued arrears for over seventeen months.”
He said though President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the minimum wage Act on 19 April, 2019, the commission is yet to benefit from the payment of the new minimum wage.
Speaking on efforts to resolve the discrepancy, Folorunsho said, “We did not just come out in the street. We have written letters to the Minister of Finance who we felt is in a better position to educate us on the reason why we are yet to benefit from the minimum wage seventeen months after it has been approved.
“The letters were copied to several ministries and agencies such as Ministry of Budget, Department of State Service, Inspector General of Police, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“Having written such letters, we issued twenty days and fourteen days ultimatums respectively without substantive reaction from the government. Therefore, the current 7 days ultimatum became imperative”.
Comrade Folorunsho added that they will embark on an indefinite nationwide strike if their demands are not met at the expiration of the current warning strike, which began on Wednesday.
He said that the non-implementation meant the staff of the commission have been on percentage payment of salaries for the past seventeen months and demanded for the payment of the arrears.
He added that over 98 percent of other FG agencies have been paid minimum wage, questioning why theirs should be different.