Employees of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), an agency responsible for the welfare of employees in the event of work-related accidents and injuries, have protested against double taxation and non-remittance of their salaries (NHF & Pension), among other things.

FIJ learned from a source within the agency, who does not want to be named, that Friday’s protest in Abuja was triggered by several unmet demands from the agency.

The source said that the protest had been an on-and-off event, particularly since 2018, when staff of NSITF protested against zero salary increment and promotion for nearly 10 years during Chris Ngige’s tenure as labour and employment minister.

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“The protest has been going on and off for a while, since the tenure of Chris Ngige. We were supposed to either get salary increment or get a consolidated salary while Muhammadu Buhari was president. This is because 10 years before that time, there was no salary increment and promotion did not take place; some cadres did not move up and, people were just stuck on a level,” the source told FIJ.

“After several back and forth, they paid the consolidated salary, which implies that all our allowances were compressed to make up our salary, making it appear bogus and robust, even though what they did was just merge our salaries and allowances. At this time, this was a good amount.”

According to the source, NSITF said the consolidated salary, which was proposed in 2019 but only implemented three years later in 2022, would be implemented in three phases due to the size of the payment.

“The first phase of the consolidated salary came and went well. But they came again to say that they were going to tax the consolidated salary. This was not supposed to be because, in Nigeria, you only pay tax on your main salary and not allowances,” the source said.

“Eventually, they deducted a large sum of money from peoples’ accounts in the name of tax, and people got used to it.”

A MYRIAD OF ISSUES

The source said another major issue that contributed to the protest was how NSTIF top stakeholders restricted the promotion of junior officers by employing people into only top management positions.

“Recently, NSTIF started recruiting people only in the higher cadre. They get people into key positions like principal manager, assistant general manager, etc. These people receive salaries that nearly run into millions, minus allowances,” the source told FIJ.

“This way, over 500 people were recruited into the agency and this has made it difficult for the people in the lower cadre, who are doing all the fieldwork, to get promoted. There is no upward movement in the agency, even though people are leaving and some are retiring. This got the union angry and they began to complain about the injustice.

“Also, at the beginning of the year, they said NSITF needed to increase its annual revenue, so they mandated that we pay N20,000 for the registration and N30,000 for the certificate outside our normal contribution as employees into the funds. They’ve been deducting this since January.

“Again, following his entry to office, President Bola Tinubu increased the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) and NSTIF said they would remove this new tax for three months at once without implementing the second phase of the consolidated salary.

“Maureen Allagoa, the managing director, was only saying we wanted her to go to jail if the new PAYE was not deducted from our salaries.

“This second phase of the consolidated salary is something they ought to have implemented at the beginning of this year, but they are not saying anything about it, even when the economy is visibly harder.”

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The source told FIJ that yesterday’s protest was triggered after NSTIF’s deduction of the new PAYE at once from their April salaries, even when their was an agreement it wouldn’t be done.

“After several dialogues on how to cushion the effects of the economy, NSTIF paid salaries on Friday, and surprisingly, they deducted the new PAYE without implementing the second phase of the consolidated salaries,” the source said.

“People were angry because everything that concerns staff welfare has to be pushed and fought for aggressively. By the time we dispersed yesterday, their were rumours that the management would return the N35,000 deducted from our salaries, but we don’t know how true that is.”