Staff of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) yesterday commenced a three-day warning strike to press home their demands for improved welfare.
The workers operating under the aegis of the Senior Staff Association of Statuary Corporation and Government Owned Companies (SSASCGOC) decried what they described as refusal of the management of the agency to conduct promotion exercise since 2011.
Eyes Of Lagos gathered that, General secretary of the union, Ayo Olarunfemi, while addressing journalists at the FHA headquarters in Abuja lamented the refusal of the agency to conduct promotion exercise since 2011 which has stalled career growth of workers from level seven and above.
He further alleged that staff of the Federal Housing Authority had been barred from enjoying national health insurance scheme by HMOs due to lack of remittance from the management.
“Some staff were denied tax clearance due to none remittance of tax deduction, same goes to the national housing fund. And more dangerous is the non-remittance of pension deduction,” the general secretary added.
Olarunfemi further lamented neglect and poor funding of the FHA. He said this has affected the agency from achieving its mandate of provision of affordable houses.
He also added that “right now houses are being built by various private property developers out of reach of common Nigerians. So where is the place of social housing? Recently workers were asked to buy a room and parlour at Igbogbo, a remote place in Ikorodu at the rate of N6.5 million”.
The general secretary said the issue of housing deficit in Nigeria is a serious business that cannot be buried on the graveyard of political insensitivity and buck passing.
