The staff of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, (DESOPADEC), last Monday shut down the headquarters of the commission in Warri over non-payment of end-of-year bonuses and other allowances to them by the commission. The protesters, in their hundreds, barricaded the gate of the commission chanting solidarity songs and disrupting business activities. They carried placards with various inscriptions such as,” Governor Ifeanyi pay attention to DESOPADEC Staff Welfare”, “Pay Pensioners their money”, “Okowa, Where is our 13th month bonus?”, among others.
One of the protesters, Mr Darlington Erhijakpor, said that the DESOPADEC staff and pensioners were being owed salaries and gratuities.
“We don’t know where our pension goes to after they deduct our monies at the end of every month.
“The 13-point bonus that we use to get at the end of every year was not paid to us,” he said. Another staff of the commission, Nejuvie Ibru, complained of poor welfare package since the coming on board of the new DESOPADEC boss. Responding, the Managing Director of the commission, Williams Makinde, admitted the non- payment of the end of year bonus to the staff.
“The grievances and protest were diversionary attempts to intimidate the management from dealing with stifling staff explosion in DESOPADEC,” he said.
Makinde said that the 13-point bonus the workers were asking for was not incorporated in the 2016 budget.
“The said bonus was not imputed in the last budget. We cannot pay what was not in the budget.
“Management is in the process of promotion appraisal. Promotion is based on performance and appraisal has to be concluded before we can promote.
“We are working with the government to deploy the redundant staff to school to teach, this is the main reason they are protesting.
“We cannot implement all conditions of service. Many don’t have offices where they are working. That cannot continue. ‘’We have started fishing them out,” he said.