Don’t Tamper With Workers’ Pension Fund, NLC Warns Govs

*Vows to mobilise workers to the streets

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Thursday, vowed to
mobilise Nigerian workers nationwide, to protest any attempt by the
36 governors to borrow or withdraw the purported sum of N17
trillion from the pension funds.

NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, sounded the note of warning
while speaking at the 47th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting
of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) in
Abuja,

In his opposition to the alleged proposal by the governors led
by Chairman of the National Economic Council Adhoc Committee,
Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, the labour leader warned that the pension
fund which was the savings of workers ahead of their retirement
from active service, must not be tampered with under any guise of
infrastructure development.

He stated categorically that state governments have no authority
over the money, which he said was largely made up of contributory
funds from federal and private-sector workers.

Ayuba Wabba lamented that with over 18 state governments still
delaying implementation of the new national minimum wage for
workers, it was unheard of that same governments would want to
borrow the pension money, a contributory fund of workers.

He said: “Pension money is not for borrowing, pension money is
in the retirement savings of workers it cannot be borrowed. Its
like money in your savings accounts that nobody can borrow the
money.

“You must go through the bank and in this case, you must go
through the PFAs and their guidelines; even the guidelines they
want to play down but to the glory of God, the board of Pencom
commission has been constituted.

“I stand here to represent all of you, we are not going to
agree; less than 5 per cent of the states are keying into the
contributory pension yet they want to borrow the money. The bulk of
the money is from Federal Government workers and private sector
workers so how do you want to borrow from where you have not sown?”
he queried.

According to the NLC President, the pension fund is not free
money and “let me sound a bit of warning, any day that we hear the
pension fund, our money has been borrowed, I will declare a protest
and everybody is going to be on the street to protect our
hard-earned money.

“The money belongs to workers, we contribute that money so that
when we retire we can have something for retirement so they have no
say whatsoever, both the principal and the capital belongs to
us.”

“I assure all of you workers from across the length and breadth
of this country, to say that our money will be save. We will do
everything possible to ensure that nobody comes to dip his hands
into the money. We are not going to allow our standards to be
lowered than what obtains in other climes.”

On the increased price of Petroleum, Wabba who said workers were
in a system where the capital seeks to dominate labour despite
being the creators of the wealth, said labour rejected the increase
because petroleum pump price should not be left to be determined by
the market forces whose sole aim was targeted at making profits
even at the detriment of the masses.

“Anything you leave to market forces citizens will suffer
because the primary focus of governance is actually to defend the
interest and welfare of our workers and even the citizens and
therefore when you leave it to market forces it is then about
profit and the condition of citizens, workers and ordinary people
have continued to be impoverished.”

Wabba further pledged the labour’s commitment towards working in
unity and solidarity to always defend workers rights and to ensure
workers were not surcharged.

On his part, National President, Medical and Health Workers
Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Comrade Biobelemoye Josiah, condemned
Federal Government’s involvement in scuttling strike actions
through the use of some Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs),
stressing that workers have legal rights to embark on industrial
actions to drive home their demands.

“In a plethora of cases, the courts have affirmed the right of
the workers to embark on strike. That strike is a legitimate weapon
available to the Trade Union to ventilate their grievances
especially when the provision is S.41 of the Trade Dispute Act
bordering on the number of days has been compiled with.

“I would therefore appeal to the Federal Government to enrich
our industrial relations practice through the interplay of the
relationship between the management (Government) and the workers
(Trade Unions) rather than scuttling the relationship through a 3rf
party interloper represented by the NGOs.”

*Vows to mobilise workers to the streets

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on Thursday, vowed to
mobilise Nigerian workers nationwide, to protest any attempt by the
36 governors to borrow or withdraw the purported sum of N17
trillion from the pension funds.

NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, sounded the note of warning
while speaking at the 47th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting
of the Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) in
Abuja,

In his opposition to the alleged proposal by the governors led
by Chairman of the National Economic Council Adhoc Committee,
Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, the labour leader warned that the pension
fund which was the savings of workers ahead of their retirement
from active service, must not be tampered with under any guise of
infrastructure development.

He stated categorically that state governments have no authority
over the money, which he said was largely made up of contributory
funds from federal and private-sector workers.

Ayuba Wabba lamented that with over 18 state governments still
delaying implementation of the new national minimum wage for
workers, it was unheard of that same governments would want to
borrow the pension money, a contributory fund of workers.

He said: “Pension money is not for borrowing, pension money is
in the retirement savings of workers it cannot be borrowed. Its
like money in your savings accounts that nobody can borrow the
money.

“You must go through the bank and in this case, you must go
through the PFAs and their guidelines; even the guidelines they
want to play down but to the glory of God, the board of Pencom
commission has been constituted.

“I stand here to represent all of you, we are not going to
agree; less than 5 per cent of the states are keying into the
contributory pension yet they want to borrow the money. The bulk of
the money is from Federal Government workers and private sector
workers so how do you want to borrow from where you have not sown?”
he queried.

According to the NLC President, the pension fund is not free
money and “let me sound a bit of warning, any day that we hear the
pension fund, our money has been borrowed, I will declare a protest
and everybody is going to be on the street to protect our
hard-earned money.

“The money belongs to workers, we contribute that money so that
when we retire we can have something for retirement so they have no
say whatsoever, both the principal and the capital belongs to
us.”

“I assure all of you workers from across the length and breadth
of this country, to say that our money will be save. We will do
everything possible to ensure that nobody comes to dip his hands
into the money. We are not going to allow our standards to be
lowered than what obtains in other climes.”

On the increased price of Petroleum, Wabba who said workers were
in a system where the capital seeks to dominate labour despite
being the creators of the wealth, said labour rejected the increase
because petroleum pump price should not be left to be determined by
the market forces whose sole aim was targeted at making profits
even at the detriment of the masses.

“Anything you leave to market forces citizens will suffer
because the primary focus of governance is actually to defend the
interest and welfare of our workers and even the citizens and
therefore when you leave it to market forces it is then about
profit and the condition of citizens, workers and ordinary people
have continued to be impoverished.”

Wabba further pledged the labour’s commitment towards working in
unity and solidarity to always defend workers rights and to ensure
workers were not surcharged.

On his part, National President, Medical and Health Workers
Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Comrade Biobelemoye Josiah, condemned
Federal Government’s involvement in scuttling strike actions
through the use of some Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs),
stressing that workers have legal rights to embark on industrial
actions to drive home their demands.

“In a plethora of cases, the courts have affirmed the right of
the workers to embark on strike. That strike is a legitimate weapon
available to the Trade Union to ventilate their grievances
especially when the provision is S.41 of the Trade Dispute Act
bordering on the number of days has been compiled with.

“I would therefore appeal to the Federal Government to enrich
our industrial relations practice through the interplay of the
relationship between the management (Government) and the workers
(Trade Unions) rather than scuttling the relationship through a 3rf
party interloper represented by the NGOs.”