UFOMBA UZUEGBU
Weary of requests since 2023 through a series of letters to the Federal Ministry of Education to convene a meeting and address welfare issues affecting its members in the 110 Unity Colleges throughout the country, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), has vowed to order its members to start Trade Union actions in the Schools within the next 21 days if no meeting is summoned.
ASCSN gave the ultimatum in a letter sent to the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja on Thursday, 23rd January 2025 by its Secretary-General, Comrade Joshua Apebo, regretting that all efforts since 2023 to bring the Management of the Federal Ministry of Education to the negotiating table to discuss welfare matters affecting its members in the 110 Unity Schools and the Federal Education Quality Assurance (FEQAS) throughout the country have been treated with contempt.
According to the Union, the outstanding welfare issues include the payment of promotion, salary and elongation arrears, payment of allowance to Education Officers displaced from the Unity Schools in the North East, payment of 1st 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation as stipulated in the Public Service Rules.
Other demands include the disarticulation of Junior Secondary Schools from the Senior Secondary Schools to create vacancies at the Directorate level, payment of transport allowance and DTA to FEQAS staff, and the need to drastically reduce exorbitant medical fees charged members of staff by the Health Management Organization (HMO), appointed by the Federal Ministry of Education under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
“There are also issues of regularization of appointment of PTA teachers, implementation of the White paper which stipulates that Units of the Association in the 110 Federal Unity Schools should be members of the School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) so that they could be part of decision-making processes in the Schools, scholarship for children of Education Officers in Colleges where their parents teach, in line with the directive of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
” We have also consistently demanded the resumption of Quarterly Meetings with the Union where welfare issues affecting members of the Association in the headquarters of the Ministry, those in the 110 Federal Government Colleges and those in FEQAS throughout the country can bd discussed and resolved in the interest of industrial peace and harmony but all our gestures to dialogue have been rebuffed “, Comrade Apebo regretted.
The Union emphasized that since all efforts to bring the Federal Ministry of Education to the dialogue table had been frustrated and since the National Leadership of the Association could no longer contain the restiveness of its members in the Unity Colleges and FEQAS, no further notice would be required after the expiration of the 21 days ultimatum issued on Thursday, 23rd January 2025, before Trade Union actions start in the Unity Schools and FEQAS.
It accordingly urged all stakeholders to prevail on the Federal Ministry of Education to embrace dialogue now instead of waiting for the industrial actions to start only for them to plead with the Union to sheath its swords.
For a better society
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