The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige on Thursday said the ministry has nothing to do with the crisis within the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Electricity sector.
Ngige said that the ministry would never interfere in any union affairs only to settle issues when call upon.
The minister was reacting to allegation by the NUP, Electricity sector, that the minister was pressurising the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to stop payment of Check-off dues to pension headquarters.
Mr Abel Eikhor, Chairman Caretaker committee of union had on Thursday at a news briefing in Abuja accused the minister of undermining the law by giving directives to various agencies to reverse the irreversible.
Eikhor said the NUP National Headquarters was recognised as the Registered Trade Union to which the sector was an affiliate and recognised to receive remittances of check off dues.
He alleged that the Formal Chairman of the sector, Mr Temple Ubani, had written to the minister of labour requesting that PTAD be called to order and reverse remittances of check off dues to his account.
” Unfortunately the minister is undermining the law by giving directives to various agencies to reverse the irreversible.
“The law is sacrosanct in this regard, PTAD is not under the ministry of labour so the minister should be guided,” he said.
He noted that the formal chairman of the electricity sector had pulled out of the Union and formed his own association known as Electricity sector Retirees Deputies Welfare Association (ESREWA).
According to Ngige, the ministry has nothing to do with Mr Ubani or the association, only when it is registered.
” I have never talk to PTAD on this issue, I will only write PTAD if there is an issue for clarification, the minister said.
Ngige noted that the NUP was the only registered Union for pensioners and it has under it different sectors.
According to him, other sub unit within the pension union had applied for recognition and registration, claiming the NUP had grown big that it could no longer take care of them.
He said the law does not stop anybody from forming sub group, likewise the law permit the minister to do a regrouping of union when the ministry feels their membership cannot be taken care off.(NAN).