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Although many public servants want to work from home, they will not be able to strike from home, the Public Service Alliance of Canada says.
The Enugu State Government has ordered all public servants and political office holders in the state to begin reporting to their places of work on Monday or face sanctions.
The order came exactly one month after the State Governor Peter Mbah banned the sit-at-home order in the state, usually enforced by a faction of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the order to the public servants and political office holders was part of Mr Mbah’s efforts to prevent them from complying with the Monday sit-at-home order usually observed in Enugu and other South-east states.
A top official of the government, who asked not to be named because he was not permitted to speak on the matter, told this newspaper on Monday that every worker in the state had been notified of the directive to report to work on Mondays.
“You know the governor has banned the sit-at-home in this state. So, there is no point allowing the workers to stay at home again on Mondays,” he said.
The Head of Service (HoS) in Enugu State, Ken Ugwu, on Friday in a circular obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, said the order to report to work on Mondays follows the cancellation of the sit-at-home in the state by Governor Mbah.
Mr Ugwu said the Monday sit-at-home “had promoted laxity, low productivity and depleted the resources” of the state.
“To this end, and to further reinforce the governor’s directive, all public/civil servants in the state are hereby directed to ensure that they report to their duty posts every work day, including Mondays, as government has put all necessary security measures in place to ensure their safety,” he said in the circular.
“Failure to adhere strictly to this directive would attract severe sanctions,” Mr Ugwu added.
The circular, addressed to key officials of the state government, also directed political officeholders, permanent secretaries and all heads of extra-ministerial departments to ensure compliance.
Sit-at-home not over in Enugu
Meanwhile, PREMIUM TIMES observed that residents of Enugu State have continued to observe the sit-at-home despite the pronouncement by Governor Mbah declaring an end to the civil action in the state.
The residents have continued to shun their businesses in compliance with the civil order declared by the separatist group.
Background
IPOB, in August 2021, introduced a sit-at-home order every Monday across the South-east to pressure the Nigerian government to release its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who is standing trial for alleged terrorism at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The separatist group later suspended the order, in preference for it to be implemented only on days Mr Kanu appears in court.
But despite its suspension, residents of the five South-east states – Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia and Anambra — have been observing the Monday sit-at-home order, primarily out of fear.
IPOB had repeatedly disowned the Monday sit-at-home across the region, saying those who still enforce the order were criminals attempting to blackmail the separatist group.
A leader of Autopilot, a faction of the IPOB, Simon Ekpa, has continued to declare sit-at-home orders in the region despite being suspended by the IPOB faction led by Mr Kanu.
IPOB is leading the agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of south-south Nigeria.
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“The strength of unionization is in numbers, and you have to have those numbers visible from Day 1.”
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With almost 160,000 federal employees now in a legal strike position, the country’s largest public-service union is preparing for the country’s first national walkout in two decades even as last-minute contract talks continue.
Old-fashioned picket lines will form an essential part of any PSAC strike, the union says. It means union members will not be able to conduct their job action on Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
“Strikes have always depended on their ground game, so this means physical picket lines across the country,” said Michael Aubry, PSAC’s assistant director of communications. “Everyone has to show up to a picket line to be considered as striking. There will be no virtual picketing from home.”
The union’s constitution stipulates that members must spend four hours a day on the picket line to be eligible for strike pay. It says benefits will be reduced for every day a member is “absent without cause.”
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If federal public servants go on strike, Aubry said, picket lines will be set up at key locations throughout the National Capital Region.
Striking public servants, he said, will be able to join the picket line closest to their home and will not be required to picket outside their regular workplace.
Aubry said a national public service strike required a show of force on picket lines across the country.
“What strikes really are is a pressure tactic. It’s putting pressure on the government, it’s showing the public there’s solidarity, and so that’s only really possible and effective when it’s visible, when it’s in front of cameras, when it’s front of government offices, MPs’ offices, on Parliament Hill,” he said.
“The strength of unionization is in numbers, and you have to have those numbers visible from Day 1.”
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Aubry said public servants in the National Capital Region would be eligible for $375 a week in strike pay. The money will be delivered to bank accounts by e-transfer for those who have provided PSAC with their email addresses, while cheques will be distributed to those picketers who have not signed up for online banking.
Even those public servants who have been approved for full-time telework will be expected to join their nearest picket line.
“In order to be considered on strike, you have to show up physically to a picket line, and we’ll have picket lines set up right across the country,” said Chris Aylward, PSAC’s national president. “There will be no virtual picket lines.”
PSAC wants to negotiate the right to telework with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. It has argued that the location where government employees perform their jobs should be a matter for negotiation after pandemic-enforced telework, but Treasury Board President Mona Fortier has insisted it’s a management right to decide where employees work.
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The government has refused to bargain on the issue.
A PSAC survey of its members last year found 80 per cent of its members opposed the government’s hybrid work plan, which now requires public servants to be in the office at least two days a week.
A workforce survey of almost 14,000 public servants conducted last year found 73 per cent of public servants said they would rather work from home, up from 23 per cent in March 2020.
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Federal government releases list of programs and services that could be affected by public-service strikes
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What happens if 155,000 federal public service workers go on strike?
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