NIMC staff lament irregular salary, poor working conditions

Some members of staff of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have lamented irregularity in the payment of their salaries.

They are also alleging that the NIMC unit of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) had been compromised and can no longer protect the interest of the members.

The members, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Daily Trust that they were recruited between 2013 and 2014 and were trained locally for two weeks but they were yet to receive transportation or training allowance.

A “level 8 step 2 officer was receiving N84,000 as salary. It dropped to N75, 000 in 2015; N73,000 in 2016 and N72,000 in 2017,” they said, adding that they were also denied other allowances.

A letter made available to Daily Trust, titled ‘Perceived refusal to address staff welfare in the commission’, which the ASCN members wrote to the D-G of the commission on June 4, 2019, signed by the chairman and secretary, Lucky M. Asekokhai and Odia Victor respectively, attributed the deaths of some of their members to poor welfare.

They, therefore, issued a two weeks’ ultimatum to the commission to address the issues and also implement the paramilitary salary scale.

In another letter dated November 8, 2019, another 21 days ultimatum was issued to the management by the union, which ended on November 29.

When contacted, spokesperson of NIMC, Jamila Mohammed Ahmed, declined commenting to the allegations, noting that the ultimatum given had elapsed.