Leadership of the Joint Negotiation Council, JNC, Delta State, assured yesterday that it would work tirelessly to ensure that the state government kept its word on meeting its obligations to its retirees.
The alleged irregular payment of the retirees’ entitlements has been at the heart of issues in
labour/government relations in the state.
But reacting to the issue in an interview in Asaba yesterday, a couple of days after his re-election as the chairman of labour side of JNC and chairman of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, NCSU, Comrade Tony Toki said that both organised labour and the state government were prioritising the payment of retirees’ entitlements, especially under the aegis of the Contributory Pensions Scheme, CPS.
According to Comrade Toki, the determination of the state government to holistically address the lingering pensions issue had found adequate expression in its recent inauguration of a committee on the matter, is expected to provide the benchmark of the administration’s desire to holistically respond to the issue.
Membership of the committee is drawn from the Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, organised labour and the State Pensions Bureau.
Toki, however, urged stakeholders, especially workers and retirees to be patient as the committee strives to turn in its report for the appropriate response by the government.
“I urge the people, especially the retirees affected by the pension issue, to be patient
because the issues relating to pension will soon be laid to rest for the benefit of all. I am very, very confident of that.”
The state NCSU/JNC leader recalled that the state government released more than N1.5billion in lieu of the pension matter after labour raised the issue at a meeting with organised labour.
He stressed that the state government under Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, which had had to intervene to positively save some councils from their inability to pay their workers, would not sit by and watch its workers, including retirees, to suffer for reason of failure to pay them their due.