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Organised Labour has berated the lethargy of states in the country to the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), as only six states, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, out of the 36 have fully joined the scheme.
The CPS commenced in 2004 and, almost two decades into its operation, workers in the civil service in most states are yet to be enrolled in the scheme.
The leadership of both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) has at different fora expressed displeasure about this contentious issue.
The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, lamented that it was unacceptable for state governments to toy with the future of workers under government payroll by refusing to join the scheme.
He noted that only politicians are enjoying the joy of service at the detriment of civil servants whereby they are stylishly shying away from taking care of the future of their workers.
Under the CPS, the employer and the employee contribute 10 percent and 8 percent of the workers’ monthly emolument, respectively, totalling 18 per cent, which is paid into the retirement savings account of the worker with the pension fund administrator.
The labour leader noted that while governors retired into luxury, retirees lived in penury and saw retirement as a death sentence.
Also reacting to the poor treatment of workers in the states, the NLC’s Head of Information, Benson Upah, described as sad and unacceptable the failure of states to remit the contributory pensions of active workers.
“The situation is sad and unacceptable. Retirees are deserving of their benefits as and when due. It is immoral that this right is being violated. But there are sanctions in the PenCom Act for a default in remittances. PenCom should exploit this as a first measure.”
It would be recalled that the Pension Apex Body, National Pension Commission (PenCom) expressed shock that as at end of June 2023 only six states and the Federal Capital Territory have fully implemented the Contributory Pension Scheme.
According to PenCom’s second quarter report for 2023, apart from the FCT, states fully implementing the CPS are Lagos, Osun, Kaduna, Ekiti, Edo, and Ondo.
No fewer than 26 states are yet to fully join the scheme.
It would be recalled that the CPS which was established in June 2004 by the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004, fully became working tool after it was re- enacted in July 2014.
