Strike: NAFDAC Boss Gives Reasons for Not Meeting Workers’ Demands
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The management of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has given reasons for its inability to meet the demands of its striking workers.
The staff had declared an indefinite strike starting from Monday to protest management’s failure to uphold an agreement signed in 2022, which addressed the workers’ welfare and promotion issues.
Top on the workers’ grievance is the agency’s failure to promote a significant number of staff members who participated in the 2024 promotion interview.
But NAFDAC said that most of the demands of the workers are not within its powers to grant.
In a statement by NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, the Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said as far as the issue of promotion or estacode are concerned, the agency has been following the rules and is committed to promoting the workers’ welfare.
For instance, Adeyeye said that issues relating to promotion of staff fall within the purview of the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation (HOS) which conducts promotion examination.
Prof. Adeyeye said the reasons advanced by the striking workers against the agency are not true, adding that whether it is a matter of promotion or estacode, the agency has been following the rules and is committed to promoting the workers’ welfare.
She said: “We are not in charge of the number of people to promote, we are only responsible for conducting exams. The office of the Head of Service of the Federation (HOS) is always responsible for allocating available vacancies that the government can pay for.
“It is not that there is vacancy and we are not promoting. It is what the government can pay for that they approve as vacancy every year. It is not different from any other agency.”
On the issue of estacode as raised by the striking workers, the NAFDAC boss said there is nothing wrong with the agency’s estacode policy.
“That is just playing to the gallery. Our staff have always been paid their due estacode and so, that is not an issue. We are not different from any other agency, the estacode will be paid when the evidence of the trip is presented. We have never owed any staff any travel allowance,” the DG added.
