LAGOS: A rally has been setup by workers of the Nigerian Telecommunication Commission (NITEL) in Abuja in protest of the management's failure to pay their 9 months salary. The protest also called for the removal of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Hajiya Zainab Sa'ab. The protesters were led by the President of the Senior Staff Association of Communication Transportation and Corporation (SSACTAC), NITEL Branch, Elias Kazzah. Kazzah disclosed that the workers had been denied their salaries for almost a year, while the management spends money on other less important things. He explained that the presidential task-force on the restructuring of NITEL in 2010 retained 380 people as transitional staffers and made available money for payment of salaries for six months. He said because the restructuring could not be completed within the 6 months period, such staffers had to continue to work. Kazzah expressed regret that the staffs had to work for nine months without salaries. “Each time we call on the management they would say there is no money. Unfortunately when the BPE asked for the statement of the account we discovered there is about 600 million in the account; this money can cover our outstanding salary; why not pay us. The CEO has bluntly refused to pay us these outstanding salaries despite the availability of funds; but she has engaged on some kind of spending unnecessarily up to the tune of N800 million without considering the welfare of the workers,” he argued. Emmanuel Adu, the National Secretary of the Union said, “We should not be passing the buck to federal government; we should be able to pay our salaries. NITEL must be paying their workers' salary not the federal government.” Meanwhile, attempts to meet members of the NITEL management for comments proved abortive. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/JlvNz Tags: Nigeria, Nitel, Telecom, Workers Section: Nigeria, Tech, West Africa
