Railway workers give FG 21-day ultimatum over poor welfare, Chinese drivers

Railway workers are poised for a showdown with the management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation and by extension the Federal Government over poor condition of service, their inability to take over the driving of the new Lagos-Ibadan trains from the Chinese contractors, among other issues.

Indeed, they have given the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum to address all their grievances or face an industrial action.

The two in-house unions, Nigeria Union of Railway workers and Senior Staff Association, gave the ultimatum in a joint statement obtained by Newstrends on Saturday.

They said the decision was taken after a meeting of the unions’ leaders with representatives of the NRC management at Ebute Meta, Lagos, headquarters of the corporation. They declared the meeting held on Tuesday November 2, 2021 as deadlocked.

 

The workers in the statement signed by Segun Esan and Jibrin Kadiri, the Secretary General of the NUR, and Secretary of the SSA respectively, expressed their opposition of the Chinese continued hold on the driving of the Lagos-Ibadan Trains Service.

“The unions have demanded from the management to collect the driving of the LITS from the Chinese who, in total aberration to the norms and ethos governing train driving in Nigeria, still hold on to driving the LITS trains beyond the warranty/guaranty period,” they stated.

The unions asked the NRC management “to ensure that the Chinese are barred from driving the LITS with immediate effect and a new regime of warranty/guaranty of the LITS service be demanded.”

They also decried the manner in which their welfare package was being handled in the last six years by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and vowed to adopt a forceful approach, going forward.

They stated, “The unions, without mincing words, expressed utmost displeasure and regrets over the manner the Hon. Minister of Transportation has been so unconcerned with the demand of the workers for enhanced salary.

“The unions recalled that the agitation for enhanced salary has been on for the past six years and the Hon. minister has tactically evaded all entreaties of the leadership of the two in-house unions to meet him on the plight of the workers as occasioned by the poor salary regime that is obtainable in the corporation and which remains the poorest salary regime ever under the federal ministry of transport.

“The unions have declared that tactics and strategies would be changed towards achieving all-important salary enhancement for the workers of the corporation as peaceful and constructive methodologies explored by the Unions have failed.”

The statement also said, “As of today and now, the Corporation has no standard condition of service and this we have pointed out to the management with the matching demand that the reworked standard condition of service which was placed before the Board should be reviewed and approved for applicability without any further delay. The management has promised to escalate it to the Board with a memo soon.”

The unions also commented on the last terrorist attack on the Abuja-Kaduna standard train, with a demand for a compulsory insurance policy for all train crew members and passengers.

“We have requested individual insurance for all the train crew, passengers and the entire workers of the corporation who may be exposed to such deadly hazards in the course of their duties. This demand is made without any prejudice to the existing group life assurance scheme (GLAS) for the workers the status of which is still lurked in obscurity to the unions,” the statement added.