SEC Workers Union Raises Alarm Over Alleged Secret Recruitment, Threatens Industrial Action

Allegations Untrue—SEC Spokesman

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria at Securities and Exchange Commission has raised the alarm over plans by the management of the commission to undertake secret recruitment exercise that is in contravention to the Federal Character principle of the Federal Government

This is just as the union said that it will soon commence an industrial action over poor welfare and what it described as secret recruitment embarked upon by the Director General of the Commission, Mr. Lamido Yuguda and the management staff.

The union raised the alarm in a letter written to the Director-General titled “Demand for the effective and final resolution of issues of concern to staff – Notification of industrial action” signed by Comrade Mamman Ali Abba (Chairman) and Comrade David Oyalami (Secretary).

The union in the letter seen by THE WHISTLER said that management specifically assured it that the demands of the commission’s staff for gratuity would be fully restored in line with the provisions of the Employee Handbook would be resolved after the promotion exams, which led to the shelving of the earlier strike.

It however stated that unfortunately, the promotion exercise has long been concluded and the full restoration of Gratuity is nowhere in sight.

It said, “Management is also set to pay itself hundreds of millions as severance package upon exiting the Commission after serving for less than four years,”

On recruitment, it noted that the commission under the leadership of former Director-General Arunma Oteh introduced the Young Professionals Programme (YPP), which according to them produced one of the best crop of employees in the commission’s history, which was advertised and highly competitive.

It however stated that the union is aware that management is currently undertaking a secret recruitment exercise and has appointed a questionable committee to oversee exercise.

“The union is not unaware that management has bribed the Federal Character Commission (FCC) with money and employment slots to obtain an illegal waiver of the requirement to advertise the recruitment exercise. The provisions of section 4 (b) of the Commission’s Employee Handbook explicitly provides for how recruitment exercises are to be conducted.

“Consequently, any recruitment exercise management undertakes must be open (advertised) and competitive and must be restricted to positions that have not been filled by existing employees,” the staff union further explained.

Other welfare demands by the union include holistic review of promotion examination process, reinstatement of additional pension contributions among others

It added that if the issues raised in the letter are not addressed, the union will embark on industrial action to press home their demands.

Reacting to the allegations, the Head, External Relations of the commission, Bagudu Mohammed Waziri said the allegations were not true as it was a normal way unions operate across the world to press home their demands.

“On recruitment, we have a process, which involves reaching out to certain organisations to get clearance before employment proper. What we are doing now is, needs assessment and not recruitment because some people were disengaged while others voluntarily retired from the commission in 2021.

“This means that people need to be replaced. As such, what we are doing is conducting a needs assessment to know the kind of staff we need whether it is economists or IT personnel among others. Therefore, nobody was recruited, there is no truth in it,” he explained.

Speaking on gratuity, Waziri further stated that “The rules governing gratuity and retirement benefits were not formulated by SEC but by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), which is also a regulator. As such, if there is any issue it will be addressed by the regulators,”