Staff of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, DICON, on Tuesday staged a protest over non-payment of arrears of salaries, allowances and other unresolved issues in Kaduna.
The aggrieved staff, who are all civilians, accused the federal government of excluding them from the wage scheme.
The workers, who displayed banners highlighting their demands as non-enrolment in the integrated payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, and payment of six months arrears of “palliative allowance”, insisted the settlement or they would go on strike.
They also revealed that DICON was owing them minimum wage from 2019 as well as delayed promotion till date.
The management deliberately excluded its employees from IPPIS, a payroll system used by most federal agencies, and we also suspect the nature of the “peculiar allowance” paid to us.
Meanwhile, there was an accusation and counter-accusation between the DICON management and the employees as mystery fire gutted a disused factory building popularly called G3 on the eve of the planned protest.
Reacting in a statement by the Public Relations Officer of DICON, Musa Yakubu, which was obtained by OsunDailyNG, the management confirmed arrears of allowances and entitlements, but claimed that proactive measures were taken to pay workers.
“They were the disbursement of outstanding payments, including a peculiar allowance for 2023 and promotion arrears from 2020 and 2021.”
