Labour faults FG over plan to sack workers

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has faulted alleged plan by the federal government  to sack 3,500 public servants on the ground  that their appointments were irregular and unauthorised.

In a  statement  in Lagos yesterday, the ASCSN Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, expressed dismay that the federal government planned  to send 3,500 employees to the oversaturated labour market at a period when millions of Nigerians were dying of starvation, some committing suicide because of harsh economic conditions imposed on them by the Government.

“The greatest tragedy of this insensitive planned retrenchment is that the Association has already taken the federal government to court on this matter and the least we expect in a normal democratic society is for the government to allow the court process to be pursued to its logical conclusion and in the interim maintain status quo ante on the matter.

 “It must be emphasized that if citizens begin to disrespect the judicial process and resort to self-help as this government has been doing, sooner or later, the entire society will be engulfed in anarchy,” the union stated.

The ASCSN said when it heard that the federal government had concluded plans to sack about 6,000 workers because they were alleged to have been illegally recruited, the association filed a suit in the National Industrial Court (NIC) to forestall the move, and that the case in Suit No. NICN/459/2016 filed by the ASCSN at the NIC, Abuja, against the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation came up for hearing on Wednesday 1st February 2017 and had been adjourned to Monday 27 February 2017.

 “Since Nigeria is practicing democracy based on the rule of law, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation should, pending the outcome of the court process, stop further action on the impending mass sack of 6,000 workers, which the government is now telling the public it is 3,500 it wants to disengage, just to mellow down their anger. We cannot continue with this culture of impunity where government officials see themselves as demigods who are above the laws of the country,” the union emphasised.