Why we can’t meet CAC protesting staff demands – Registrar

The Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Bello Mahmud, has said that he will not pay the striking staff of the commission benefits yet to be approved by his ministry.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on the industrial action embarked on by staff of the commission since Monday, Mahmud said he was awaiting ministerial approval for the implementation of the agreement the union and management had reached on the industrial dispute.

The staff, under the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), Corporate Affairs Commission chapter, shut down the commission since Monday to protest “management actions and inactions on the plight of the staff.”

The CAC boss said the problem started after a proposed pay rise in 2010 of 15 per cent and 35 per cent for executive and non-executive staff respectively which the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission altered to a flat rate of 26 per cent for all.

He said the non-executive staff have since then continued agitating for the payment of the 9 per cent cut from their then proposed salary increase.

Mahmud said the CAC had reached out to the wages commission but no approval was granted for a pay rise for the non-executive staff.

He said the development led to an agreement on other benefits that would pacify the staff but since the agreement involved policy issues, it needed the approval of the board.

However, the CAC at the moment has no constituted board and the agreement had been forward to the minister for approval.

“While ministerial waiting approval, for the union suddenly embarked on a strike action,” he said.

He said a meeting convened on Tuesday involving all stakeholders failed to resolve the dispute as the union prevented the management from accessing the CAC premises on Wednesday.

He advised the union to toe the path of peace by waiting for the ministerial approval, adding that the strike action was adversely affecting the revenue base of the commission.