and his Daar Group. It has now become obvious that AIT has been secretly funded
by the past administration hence the recent bankruptcy and inability to pay
staff.
Few days ago, AIT workers resorted to publicly protesting and begging president
Buhari to intervene and save them from imminent death due to hunger. The staff
claim that the management have refused to pay their salary and alleged that the
non-payment of salaries was a deliberate action from the management. The staff
threatened suicide if nothing is done.
The eagleonline reports that the workers armed with placards with various
anti-management slogans are fed up, the members of staff also expressed shock
that the management had concluded plans to lay off some of the workers.
The protesting staff alleged that the management was prepared to replace
permanent workers with contract appointments, adding that the steps were
anti-labour law.
Daily Trust reports that one of the workers who pleaded anonymity claimed that
the salary for August, 2014 was paid on Tuesday, August 11, 2015. He claimed
that when the management paid any month’s salary, it would take another five
months before another payment was made.
“There has been no communication or excuse whatsoever from management for
non-payment of staff salary. When they pay for one month, it will take about
four to five months before another payment will be made,”
“A lot of people have left the organisation due to this problem while more
people are planning to leave; yet the management are not bothered.
“We feel the non-payment is deliberate because the money is there but we are
not been paid.
“The non-payment is inflicting suffering on us because we have families that we
cannot cater for, we find it difficult to feed, pay our children’s school fees,
house rent and other utility bills,”
He called on the Nigerian Union of journalist and the federal government to
look into the matter as it was fast becoming unbearable.
“We are really suffering and some of us cannot quit our jobs because there are
no available jobs out there.”
In a similar development, NUJ resolved to throw its weight behind the staff of
AIT and ThisDay Newspapers who went on industrial strike action to protest the
non-payment of eight months salaries.