Labour Demands Compensation For Civil Servants Over Aborted Promotion Exercise

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Worried by the cancellation of Promotion Interview organised by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) for members of the Union in the Directorate Cadre in Abuja, organised Labour under the auspices of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has demanded that the officers affected should be adequately compensated in order to avert industrial crisis.

In a press statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday, the ASCSN Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, regretted that hundreds of Senior Civil Servants in the Directorate Cadre were summoned from different parts of the country for Promotion Examination fixed for 25^th to 28^th June, 2018 in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory only for the Promotion Examination to be cancelled when they had completed accreditation.

“It is indeed sad that Senior Civil Servants were made to risk their lives, paid their transport and accommodation in Abuja, arrived at the venue of the Promotion Examination only for the exercise to be cancelled.

“This type of action tends to create the impression in the minds of the general public that some top Government official are sadists who take delight in inflicting sorrow on innocent Civil Servants,” the Union stated.

The ASCSN wondered what type of Agency of Government should take months to plan for Promotion Interview for high ranking Civil Servants, summoned them to Abuja and casually announced that the exercise had been postponed due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

It urged the FCSC and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) to take necessary steps to pay the officers concerned double their Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) for the trauma and anxiety caused them.

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“The FCSC should henceforth stop the practice of summoning Civil Servants to Abuja for Promotion Examination only for the exercise to be rescheduled.

“This almost irrational decision by the FCSC to be postponing Promotion Interviews is becoming standard practice and should be stopped,” the Union emphasized.

The ASCSN recalled that in 2010 hundreds of Senior Civil Servants were invited for interview in Abuja for almost one week and the Government refused to pay them their DTA.

It added that but for the intervention of the Union, the Federal Civil Service Commission would have continued with the policy of organizing Promotion Interview in the unholy hours of the night from 12 mid night.

“What manner of people can be having sleepless nights devising policies that are designed to always portray the Government of the day as heartless without human feelings,” the ASCSN stated.

It urged the FCSC and the OHCSF to take necessary steps to stop such unholy practices or face the wrath of Trade Unions and millions of their teeming members.