Casual employees of Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC) are groaning under economic hardships, trauma and depression after years without regularisation as permanent staffers, Straightnews has gathered.
A casual employee is a worker engaged on a temporary basis and whose salary does not compare with that of his colleague on a permanent employment.
Under Casualisation, the worker is not entitled to such pecks as transport, housing, leave allowances, promotion or special benefits package.
It is understood that AKBC employed casual workers numbering more than 98. Some are said to have put in nine years ago while others were engaged few years ago to salvage the existing vacancies due to death or retirement of permanent staffers.
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One of the affected AKBC casual employees who refused to speak in print told Straightnews ‘‘More than 75 percent of job assignments in Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation, an official mouth piece of the state government, is handled by casual employees of the station known as ‘Permanent Artistes.’
‘‘We are paid the monthly stipend of N10,000 and N15,000 irrespective of your qualifications from the same government we are projecting. Aside, a number of them have remained in the same position. More than 10 years and still expecting that their employment would be regularised by the state government,’’ he bemoaned.
Investigation by Straightnews revealed that 2015 was the last time the state government employed AKBC staff during ex-Governor Godswill Akpabio administration to augment manpower challenges.
The source said ‘‘When Governor Udom Emmanuel came on board in 2015, he promised to give priority to the information machinery of the government to enable it compete favourably with its global counterparts with particular reference to capacity and manpower development.
‘‘The promise was received with great expectation especially by ad-hoc personnel of the station who viewed Mr Emmanuel as a messiah that will come to change their stories by absorbing them into the mainstream of the state Public service.’’
Recall that during the first media interaction of Governor Udom Emmanuel with journalists, at Government House, Banquet Hall, Uyo, one state information officer asked him what the government was doing about the manpower deficit of AKBC occasioned by either death or yearly retirement of staffers.
In a swift reaction, Emmanuel told the journalist “Don’t cry more than the bereaved, the Director General of AKBC, Pastor Anietie Ukpe is here (at the media chat) and he is not complaining that the station needs more personnel.”
Feelers indicated that the Governor’s response to the issue received mixed reactions and it did not go down well with those who are affected by the casualization, judging from several assurances they have received from the AKBC management that the Governor was yet to give green light for their absorption.
Early this year, Pastor Anietie Ukpe, the corporation’s Director-General in a sympathetic move and in a bid to keep hope alive had met with all the “permanent Artistes.”
He thanked them for their contributions to the services of the station and the state over the years, urging them to continue to sustain the tempo and believing that the Governor will consider their plight.
Owing to the plights of the casual employees, Comrade Sunny James, the Akwa Ibom Chairperson of Nigeria Labour Congress sought solutions to casualisation in AKBC and other government parastatals and the need for the workers’ friendly Governor to regularise their employment.
During the Workers Day celebration on May 1, 2022, Comrade James in his address underscored the importance for the state government to look into the case of the “permanent Artistes” to change their status to permanent staffers,
He reminded that majority of them are graduates who have put in their enormous contributions to the state through AKBC platform but receive the paltry sum of N10,000 or N15,000 monthly stipends.
He, therefore, appealed that the Governor to consider their employment.
Similarly, Comrade Anthony Etim, the Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists, AKBC (TV Service) Chapel during a courtesy call on the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong in his office on July 21, 2022, made a case for the absorption of permanent Artistes who have contributed immensely to the service of the station for more than 10 years, saying their absorption will address the manpower needs of the station.
According to him, “Over 75 percent of job assignments in AKBC is handled by permanent Artistes and some of them have remained in this status for more than 15 years and still counting. We request you use your good offices to solicit their absorption to address the manpower needs of the station.”
Ememobong said the state government has procured a new transmitter for the station which would be delivered soon, adding that Governor Emmanuel is committed to ensure that AKBC can competitively match other stations whether privately or publicly owned.
Stands of Labour Act, Constitution on Casualisation
Casualization devised by some employers as a means to save costs contravenes Section 7(1) of the Labour Act, Cap 198, and Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1990.
The Act provides that, “Not later than three months after the beginning of a worker’s period of employment with an employer, the employer shall give to the worker a written statement specifying the terms and conditions of employment, which include the nature of the employment and if the contract is for a fixed term, the date when the contract expires.”
In support with the Labour Act, Section 17(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) condemns casualisation because it is at variance with its provisions, which guarantees equal pay for equal work.
Furthermore, Convention 153 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which Nigeria is a signatory, does not support any form of discrimination in workplace.
In fact, the section holds that casualisation is out of tune with 21st century best practices. Hence, the discrimination in pay between permanent and casual employees should not exist. Besides, the section frowns against discrimination on account of sex or any grounds whatsoever.
National Assembly to end Casualisation
A bill for the prohibition of Casualisation in all forms of employment in the private and public sector in the country got a boost and had scaled second reading in the Senate.
The bill has thereafter referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour, and Productivity to report back in four weeks.
This was sequel to the consideration of the general principles of a bill sponsored by Senator Ayo Akinyelure, PDP-Ondo Central during plenary.
The bill is titled “A Bill for an Act to provide for the prohibition of casualisation in all forms of employment in the private and public sector in Nigeria and for related matters.”
In his lead debate, Senator Akinyelure who noted that the bill was read for the first time on the floor of the red chamber on March 4, 2020, said that casualisation of Nigerian graduates in the labour market had become a subject of great concern.
He said, “This is as more workers continue to groan under the immoral strategy of cutting cost by employers rendering them inferior to their counterparts in other countries of the world.’’
Straightnews understands that some of the casual employees in AKBC have committed greater part of their productive years to the state, while some have few years to clock the mandatory 35 years’ retirement or to attain the 60 years on grounds of age.
AKBC was officially commissioned by the then Wing Commander Idongesit Nkanga on July 27, 1991 transmitting on 90.5 FM frequency. It has Television and Radio Directorates with about 250 staffers.
