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Insurance commission staff down tools indefinitely
 
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Tue, 22 Mar 2016   ||   Nigeria,
 

Staff of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) yesterday began an indefinite strike to press home their demand for better working conditions.
The industrial action saw the staff shut down the head office of NAICOM in Garki 2, Abuja.

NAICOM is the regulator of the insurance industry and a shutdown of its operations by staff suggests a lot of regulatory oversight on the industry may be stalled, temporarily.

For instance, NAICOM is currently vetting the annual accounts of insurance companies and this may be affected. It is also transiting from compliance based supervision to risk based supervision, and working on launching the insurance portal by June.  Observers fear if the strike isn’t contained early, the timelines for these critical programmes may be affected.

The protesting staff, under the auspices of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Service Employees (AUPCTRE), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) branch, barricaded NAICOM premises as early as 7a.m. and shut out majority of management staff from accessing their offices. The protesting union members’ stayed till about 1 p.m., when their chairman, Comrade Ibrahim Abdullateef, directed them to disperse as the key management officers were afraid to come for negotiation in a tense atmosphere.

However, the labour leader assured the workers that their leaders were going onto the discussion table to cash in their demands but not to renegotiate further terms, adding that all the terms and conditions had been concluded in the past.
Key among the demands of the aggrieved staff is the confirmation of staff that are due for confirmation; promotion of staff that are due for promotion; training of staff; poor handling of security issues; and the provision of appropriate working tools for members of staff, among others.

Comrade Abdullateef noted that if these basic conditions were not met, they would take their public protest to the Ministry of Finance, the National Assembly and the Presidency.
The union also wants the practice of management recruiting management staff from outside to stop except where there were no competent hands within the system to fill those vacancies. The practice of recruiting directors from the outside, the union alleged “has not only destroyed staff morale but also introduced disharmony in the system.

The union also emphatically rejected FITC as a consultant on training and recruitment because according to them, FITC had been compromised.
The contract with FITC is not a life one. We are in the era of change. Let us have a change of consultant for our promotion/recruitment exercises,” the union said.
Commenting, Mr. Salami Rasaaq, Assistant Director/Head, Corporate Affairs, said the NAICOM “management is looking into the workers’ demands.”
 

 

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