‘FG Plans To Retrench Workers’ – Labour Raises Alarm

Organised labour, yesterday, raised the alarm over plans to lay-off workers through the merger of Federal Government’s ministries, parastatals and agencies (MDAs).

Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) said the decision of the Federal Government to commence the process of merging some MDAs and scrap others was geared at sending thousands of public service employees into the labour market.

ASCSN Secretary General, Alade Bashir Lawal, expressed the shock that the Federal Government had chosen a time when the world, including Nigeria, was mourning the death of thousands of people killed, daily, by coronavirus to implement the Steve Oronsaye report which recommended the merger of some MDAs and the scrapping of others.

“The reality is that if some MDAs are merged and others scrapped, thousands of public servants will surely lose their jobs.

“We cannot understand the logic behind government’s decision at this material time when Nigerians are losing their loved ones while thousands of others are being afflicted by coronavirus,” the union said.

According to the ASCSN, the impression created before the public since this news broke out was that the government had no empathy and insensitive to the suffering of millions of Nigerians.

It added that Nigeria was already rated the poorest country in the world and if government carried out its plan to throw thousands of workers into the market, it would lead to monumental social crisis, the end result of which no one could predict.

The union enjoined President Muhammadu Buhari to direct relevant organs of government plotting to implement the Oronsaye report to desist forthwith so as not to trigger off industrial and social unrest in the country.

It alleged that the fifth columnists in government are pushing for the implementation of the Oronsaye report in order to mislead the president to enter into collision course with millions of Nigerian workers and thereby disrupt the prevailing cordial relationship existing between his administration and labour.

ASCSN urged labour unions, civil society groups, religious leaders, traditional rulers and eminent citizens to prevail on the government to put a halt to the ill-advised policy in the interest of industrial peace and harmony.