By Esenvosa Izah
THE ASSOCIATION of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) says there is need for the National Assembly to amend the pension law to allow for more robust packages for retired civil servants.
ASCSN National President, Comrade Shehu Muhammed, made this known at a news conference on Wednesday in Lagos.
Muhammed said that issues surrounding pension had been lingering for years and many attempts to tackle them had not been successful.
According to him, some employers fail to remit their own contributions to the Pension Commission.
He said that an affected employee would, therefore, not have access to his terminal benefit until when the employer would pay up.
“From this, you can see that there is no difference from the old system and the new system; we are all coming back to square one, where you spend years without having access to your terminal benefit.
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“Some retirees have died without having access to their retirement benefits.
“However, we still have a window: those who formulated the law, the National Assembly.
“That is our next bus stop because the complaint we are receiving across the country by our members is that the contributory pension scheme should go.
“It is no more beneficial to the workers of Nigeria. We are still going back to the National Assembly with suggestions as regards amendment of the law in order to pave way for us to have access to our money immediately after exiting the service,” he said.
On employment, the labour leader urged governments to come up with policies and programmes that would provide job opportunities and small businesses for those exiting from civil service.
He said that hundreds of thousands of students graduated from tertiary institutions yearly and were expected to get white-collar jobs.
According to him, high unemployment rate contributes to insecurity.
He said, “Government must put enough resources into addressing unemployment.” (NAN)
