Lagos State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) has promised to mediate in the industrial dispute between unions in the News Agency of Nigeria and the management.
Chairman of the council, Qasim Akinreti said this on Tuesday in Lagos during the council’s Media Tour to NAN Lagos office.
He said the NUJ was yet to get details of the dispute, and said that the national body, through the president would meet with the unions and management to settle issues amicably.
The chairman said that the Lagos council got information about the impending industrial dispute of the unions from NUJ NAN Lagos Chapel, advising that the union should work according to the civil service rule.
NAN reports that the three unions in of the agency were threatening to down tools on July 26 on grounds of non-implementation of conditions of service that was last reviewed 16 years ago.
Other complaints included the non-payment of promotion arrears for 2012 and 2017, shortfall of promotion arrears of 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The unions are also protesting the non-payment of allowances to staff who wrote the 2018 promotion examination in Lagos and Abuja and the non-payment of repatriation allowances to foreign correspondents.
The Unions include the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union, RATTAWU, and the NAN chapter of AUCPTRE.
Earlier, the Secretary of NUJ, NAN Lagos chapel, Mr Moses Omorogieva, briefed the council on the impending three-day warning strike.
NAN Boss Pleads With Staff
Meanwhile, Managing Director of NAN, Bayo Onanuga, has said the agency was working hard to increase its internal revenue.to enable management further improve the welfare of workers.
Onanuga, who addressed workers in Lagos office, unveiled some of the frontiers the agency was exploring to boost its internal revenue to complement dwindling government funding.
The managing director spoke to the workers ahead of the threat by the three staff unions to embark on a warning strike on July 26.
The unions had earlier given a deadline of July 25 for management to meet their demands.
He said that NAN had the potential to be self-sufficient, adding that the news agency was working towards achieving it through the expansion of its SMS news and other media content services.
“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,’’ Onanuga said.
He explained that the implementation of NAN staff condition of service was 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.’’
The managing director said that all claims concerning promotion arrears have been forwarded to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation for payment.
On training, he explained that within the limit of its resources, the Agency has been sending staff on various training.
He added that management has been collaborating with some organisations to provide specialised training for the staff to boost their productivity.
Onanuga, therefore, said there was no justifiable reason for the workers to go on strike, advising them to show more understanding with the management.
He also advised them to join the management in finding better ways of improving the Agency’s finances so as to improve the workers’ welfare.