Staff union of the Corporate Aff airs Commission (CAC), in Abuja yesterday shut down business activities at the commission’s headquarters as the members begun warning strike over alleged nonpayment of salary arrears. Th e chairman of the staff union, Ibrahim Kirfi , alleged that the management defaulted in the payment of salary arrears that the strike was due to nonimplementation of salary arrears and the huge disparity between the executive and non-executive staff . He stressed the need for the management to pay the arrears from January 2014 to date, adding that if the demands were not met, the strike would continue indefi nitely. Kirfi said the industrial disharmony between the management and staff dated to October 2013, when former President Goodluck Jonathan announced an increase in emoluments of staff by 53.37 per cent. According to him, the agreement had been reached that an increase of 15 per cent and 35 per cent be made in favour of the executive and nonexecutive staff .
“In February this year, we were on strike on the same issue, a meeting was called at the instance of the permanent secretary, at the end of the deliberation, it was agreed that the arrears be paid while the disparity would be bridged within three months. “Th ey promised that on June 23, they will commence payment; since then nothing has been done on the payment of the arrears,” he added. CAC spokesperson, Godfrey Ike, said that the strike was due to a lingering crisis on welfare. Ike said the Federal Ministry of Labour had intervened and an MoU was agreed on and signed by all the parties including the union, management and representative of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Industry and Investment. He said, however, that the commission had no board so it had to seek approval from the mother ministry to implement the MOU
