Disquiet in NSITF over planned review of condition of service
FRESH industrial crisis may be brewing in the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) over the move to tamper with some of the negotiated allowances of the staffers.
The workers are gearing up for a showdown going by the report of the administrative panel of enquiry on the financial state of NSITF set up by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to look into some administrative issues in the management of NSITF, which recommended that the conditions of service of staff should be reviewed with immediate effect to correct lapses contained therein.
Indeed, the panel recommended that the emoluments of the staff should be reviewed without delay and curiously without a revisit to the collective agreement it had with relevant unions.
The committee noted that the payment of some allowances were not approved by the National Income, Salaries and Wages Commission and also made allusions to noncompliance with the public service rules.
But a closer examination of the chapter 16 of the Public Service Rule 2006 specifically makes provision for an exemption to the rule, which the NSITF management might have relied on when negotiating terms with the relevant unions.
Also, rule 160103 states that parastatals are to retain and improve existing rules, procedures and practices in their establishment and ensure there are no deviations from the general principles of the public service rules. However, in the absence of internal rules and regulations on any matter, the relevant provisions of the public service rules shall apply.
Again, rule 160101 of the service states that a parastatal is a government-owed organisation established by statute to render specified service to the public. It is structured and operates according to the instrument establishing it and also comes under the policy directions of government.
It follows therefore that the Public Service rules that NSITF as a parastatal is allowed to have its staff conditions of service, which is purely contractual between the board and its employees different from the conditions of service obtainable in the mainstream civil service.
Also, this has been tested in the law court in a case between a former Managing Director of NSITF, Dr Mohammed Aji, Monisola Adetola and 10 others at the Court of Appeal, Abuja division on Wednesday, 16th April, 2003 with case number CA/A/45/2002, Justice Oguntade considered amongst other issues conversed in the appeal by NSITF, “Whether NSITF MB (Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund Management Board) was obliged to obey the directives of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) through the Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity directing NSITF to recall and reinstate 11 members of staff of NSITF that were dismissed by the Board.”
Justices Oguntade, Z.A Buka Chuwa and Oduyemi struck out the case of the Plaintiffs against the 1st Defendant Dr Aji (MD of NSITF) on account of the fact that the claim against him was statute barred, but dismissed the case the 2nd Defendant (NSITF MB) on account of the fact that both the SGF and Minister of Labour and Productivity lacked the power to compel or direct the (NSITF MB) to reinstate the dismissed staff as NSITF MB (Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF Management Board) is a creation of statute with its own legal personality distinct from even the President, Attorney General of the Federation, the Honourable Minister of Labour and the Head of Service of the Federation who were all joined in the suit as defendants.
The Court went further to say that the SGF had no business interfering with the contract between NSITF MB and the Plaintiffs (the dismissed staff of NSITF) and that the letter written from the office of the SGF asking the appellants (the MD NSITF and NSITF MB) to re-absorb the Plaintiffs must be seen as no more than advisory in nature
It is apparent from the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case that neither the Minister of Labour nor any other person can lawfully interfere with any terms of contract between NSITF MB and its employees in contradiction with the recommendations of the committee.
Indeed, the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC) headed by the late Hamza Zayyad, benchmarked and classified NSITF as a financial services provider akin to insurance, banking and other related services and in tandem with prescribed salaries and allowances in the service of NSITF that should be competitive enough.
A dressing allowance for example is a necessity for NSITF staff as the bulk of NSITF staff who are deployed as operational staff have as the major thrust of their duty, interfacing with employers from whom NSITF collect contributions. To appear well dressed at all time in the course of their duty is a necessity. All financial sector employers maintain this kind of allowance in one form or the other. More importantly most of the allowances were products of collective agree- ments secured by various staff unions to which NSITF staff belong duly approved by the board in which a permanent secretary (Dr Iloh) was a member.
Again, the allowance that was highlighted in the investigative committee report, it must be pointed out that the allowance is purely the monetised value of prerequisite of management staff that were hitherto provided in kind before the monetisation policy of the Federal Government under President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The Guardian gathered that the administrative committee did not have any interface with former Managing Directors and General Managers who still have institutional memory of all that transpired before the commencement of the contributory pension in 2004 to have adequate knowledge of the various transition of the Fund from its days as National Provident Fund.
A former Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Clement Iloh, who served his entire carrier in the ministry and was a member of the last board of the Fund was said not have been consulted.
In the midst of these developments, the National President of Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Oyinkansola Olasanoye insisted that the immediate concerns of the union is to ensure that the board of the Fund is inaugurated and put on the path of development where corruption and abuse of power by a few privileged Nigerians will no longer be the practice.