Mr Sunday Alhassan, the President, Nigeria Union of Postal Telecommunication Employees (NUPTE), said the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) would soon picket the office of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) in Abuja.
Alhassan said this when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said the NIPOST office was being targeted for the protest because of alleged diversion of the check-off dues of NUPTE to the Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporation (SSACTAC).
Alhassan said that the union has over 3,000 members and that their check-off dues were being remitted to another association without the consent of the workers concerned.
He said that the office of the Post Master General does not have the right to unilaterally remit the check-off dues to SSACTAC.
“The issue started last year February, the NIPOST management drew the attention of NUPTE to change to a branch of the Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporation.
“They believed that officers from Grade Level 07 and above belong to the senior staff association according to civil service rules.
“And this automatically means that NIPOST would start taking check off dues from those officers to senior staff association,” he said.
Alhassan said the union, however, explained to the management that the right to belong to a body, union or an association is exclusively the right of an individual and the constitution of Nigeria gives everybody the right of choice.
“Before we knew it, the executives of SSACTAC, using the management who wrote to IPPIS and they commenced that deduction from the month of November 2014.
“Before then, we have told them that if they do that, the workers are going to react to it.
“But we thought it was wise to use a peaceful way so we reported to the NLC.
“The NLC wrote to the management urging it to stay action on the matter until discussions are held,” the NUPTE president said.
Alhassan said the union believed that the management had a hidden agenda in the matter “which is not far from wanting to muscle the union”.
He said that the issue was discussed at the National Executive Council of NLC in Enugu in August in 2014.
He said that the new leadership of NLC also upheld that particular decision of the NEC at Enugu.
Alhassan said the at the last Central Working Committee meeting of NLC, NIPOST was given a notice of the picketing of the organisation if the decision was not reversed.
