Civil Service Unions Disagree On Contributory Pension

Different unions in the Enugu State Civil Service have advocated different modules for the passage and implementation of the contributory pension scheme bill now before the Enugu State House of Assembly.

During a repeat public hearing on the bill on Friday, Mr Sylvanus Ononyima, Permanent Secretary, Establishments, who represented the Head of Service, said that government would want the bill to be passed as it would reduce the burden of payment of retirement benefits to retirees.

Chris Ani, the state’s Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in his presentation, said the bill would only be passed, if provisions for payment of gratuity was provided in the bill.

While the representative of the Joint Negotiating Council advocated an increase of government’s contribution to 27 per cent and the workers to pay three per cent, Chudi Onah, representing the Trade Union Congress said that government should pay 18 per cent, and workers five per cent.

Onah said that his union would not want the bill to be passed as presently constituted where the workers were to pay 50/50 contributions with the State Government.

Osmond Ugwu, representing Concerned Workers of Enugu State, said that unless the contribution was made optional, the House should not pass the bill.

According to him, passing the bill as presently constituted will contradict the constitutional provisions on employment and labour laws.

“Why we kick against this bill is that during employment the employee is promised to receive his gratuity and pensions after retirement.

“In this present bill, civil servants that have served for years will not be paid gratuity but only a meager amount he contributed within the remaining few years of his service. It is unacceptable to us,’’ he said.

Declaring open the public hearing, Dennis Agbo, Deputy Speaker of the House said that the bill was contentious, hence the repeat of the public hearing.

“We decided to conduct another public hearing for this bill to enable us to give fair hearing to all concerned.

“We promise to be very careful in handling the bill because we do not want to do anything that will have negative impact on our workers,’’ he said.

Earlier, Eugenia Ogbu, Chairman, House Committee on Civil Service Matters, said that the exercise was to provide another opportunity for all aggrieved groups to make useful contributions that would make passage of the bill easy.

She promised that the House would come up with a law that would be beneficial to all concerned in the implementation of the contributory pension scheme.