(HAPPENING NOW) NAN Workers Currently Protesting in Lagos Over Poor Welfare Package.

 Emerging facts getting to our newsroom shows that members of staff of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, are presently staging a protest against what they termed poor welfare package(s).

The protest is ongoing at the Lagos office of the agency as of the time of filing this report.

The workers had commenced a three-day warning strike, on Thursday, (today) to protest apparent poor welfare package.

The warning strike commenced after midnight of Wednesday, July 25, 2018.

It would be recalled that members of staff who were represented by the three unions within the agency, namely, NUJ, AUCPTRE and RATTAWU, had written to the management, with the issuance of a seven-day ultimatum. 

The three unions, representing members of staff had earlier written the Management, given it a seven-day ultimatum  to address the demands made by the union.

The workers had further warned that if the demands were not met, they would have no choice than to begin the showdown, today.

The demands made by the union on behalf of the workers include: implementation of Condition of Service that was last review 16 years ago, Payment of Promotion Arrears for 2012 and 2017 and payment of shortfall of promotion arrears of 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Other demands are: payment of DTA and hotel allowances to staff that left their base to write the 2018 Promotion Examination in Lagos and Abuja and payment of repatriation allowances of foreign correspondents.

The workers are equally demanding training of staff to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, payment of overtime arrears for drivers and arrears of Transportation Allowance for staff of editorial department.

The letter to the management had read in part: 

"The staff of the agency will down tools on July 25 midnight if their demands were not met.

Chairman-NUJ, Yetunde Bada………………………………..

Secretary NUJ, Bokula Adewumi…………………………….

Chairman-AUCPTRE, Suleiman Haruna……………………..

Secretary AUCPTRE, Uduak I. Oputa…………………………

Chairman RATTAWU, Daniel Akaphiare…………………….

Secretary RATTAWU, Isiaka Sakiru…………………………."

Meanwhile, the Managing Director, MD, of the news agency, Bayo Onanuga, last Monday revealed that efforts are being made to increase increase its internal revenue.

Onanuga particularly argued that an increase in revenue would give management the enablement to see to the further improvement of workers' welfare.

Speaking while addressing staff at the Lagos office of NAN, Onanuga revealed some of the frontiers the agency was exploring to boost its internal revenue to complement dwindling government funding.

According to the MD, “We need to expand our subscriber base to millions of people.

"Even if we are able to build a subscriber base of 200,000 and we charge N30 a day, we will be able to make N6 million daily.

"The implementation of NAN staff condition of service is beyond NAN management as we do not pay salaries,

“The new condition of service has been sent to the Ministry of Information. 

"It needs the approval of the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Ministry of Finance and Budget Office.

"All claims concerning promotion arrears have been forwarded to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation for payment."

On training, Onanuga said, "Within the limit of its resources, the Agency has been sending staff on various training.

"Management has been collaborating with some organisations to provide specialised training for the staff to boost their productivity."

Onanuga, however maintained that there would be no justifiable reason for the workers to go on strike.