Personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) are protesting at the corp’s headquarters, in Abuja, and its formations across the country over an N5,000 deduction in their December salaries amidst rising economic hardship.
The said amount was reportedly deducted as costs for ‘name-tag’ as evident in the description from the transaction alert.
The ‘name-tag’ cost was deducted alongside other statutory deductions.
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It was learned that Civil Defense chief, Abubakar Audi, had promised to resolve the matter but the officers are revolting that the name tag is useless because it is part of the standard uniform design and should not have been deducted in the first place, especially amidst harsh economic conditions.
The corps spokesperson, Mr. Sola Odumosu, said there was no disquiet in the corps and that there was no deduction whatsoever in the officers’ salaries by the corps.
He, however, claimed that the deduction was being made by a voluntary cooperative society that the officers voluntarily joined.
“Let us distinguish cooperative society from the corps. There is no deduction of salaries by the corps.
“The issue of salary deduction should be differentiated from the deduction for name tags. To be clear, when you talk about name tags, there is a cooperative society to which some members voluntarily belong.
“This voluntary membership of the cooperative society requires that monies you contribute will be invested on your behalf and there are projects that the society undertakes on behalf of members who are cooperators. But the issue of name-tag that you’re talking about was discussed at the management level of the cooperative society.
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“So let us distinguish the cooperative society from the corps. If there is a deduction on a name tag, it is a deduction by the cooperative society on a consensus agreement of the members of the society, it is not about everybody and does not affect the generality of the corps,” Mr. Odumosu said.
When asked about why the cooperative society would deduct monies for uniform accessories, Mr. Odumosu said he would not comment on behalf of the cooperative society.
Other security agencies such as the police and the Armed Forces have complained about arbitrary deductions from their wages in the past.
