The executive committee of the Senior Staff Association of Civil Servants, Rivers State Chapter, has called for the immediate sack of the Head of Service, Mr. Rufus Godwin, over what they termed his anti-labour posture.
The call is sequel to the query the Head of Service issued to the leaders of three labour unions in the state.
Mr. Godwin had earlier in the week handed down a query to the Rivers State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade (Mrs.) Beatrice Itubo; Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Austin Jonah; the Chairman of the Joint Negotiating Council, Nmecheta Chuku.
The senior staff in a communiqué issued at the end of an expanded emergency meeting, held in Port Harcourt, Wednesday, stated that the Head-of-Service has not shown to be a competent administrator who cared for the welfare of workers.
The communiqué read by the Secretary of the association, Hamish Mohammed, said that the Head-of-Service has shown through his actions that he was anti-workers and that “it has become imperative for him to leave his current position for a more generous and humane head-of-service.”
The senior staff in the communiqué also asked the head-of-service to withdraw the query he issued to the chairman of the TUC within three days. The communiqué also asked the state government to review the desirability of the proposed Contributory Health Insurance Scheme.
Some of their grouses against the Head-of-Service mentioned in the communiqué included the refusal of the Head-of-Service to act upon the N1million soft-loan proposed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria to individual workers who have been contributing to the scheme; the stagnation of career progression for our members who have been denied promotion for years; the non-payment of the statutory law officers allowance for over 10 years now.
Reacting to her query by the Head-of-Service, Comrade Itubo, declared: “They want to humiliate labour leaders, but they cannot bring labour leaders down. Labour can’t be intimidated or humiliated. They would rather show the world how naïve they are in their administration because a good administrator would know that when labour leaders convene and address their members it is for a purpose.”
She pointed out: “Labour met for a purpose. Labour has spoken and it is for a purpose. And no amount of intimidation will make workers to rescind their decision to convey the decision of workers to the government on the proposed Contributory Health Insurance Scheme. And that is exactly what we have done.
“I am surprised that the query came two days after we have served them the communiqué that emanated from the workers assembly convened to deliberate on the proposed Contributory Health Insurance Scheme. The executive council of the state NLC will meet on Thursday, to take a position on the way forward,” she stated.
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