By Favour Nnabugwu

The management of National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, and its staff, under the aegis of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Service Employees, AUPCTRE, are at daggers drawn over alleged non-implementation of the 14-point agreement months after the intervention of the Ministry of Finance. Vanguard investigations revealed in Abuja, yesterday, that negotiations between the union and the management  hit the rock over the delay by the insurance regulator to treat the contending issues agreed upon by both parties with the attention they deserved.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Alhaji Mohammed Kari, at the meeting held with the workers last Tuesday, announced to the union that 10 of the 13-point agreement had been resolved, while one was ongoing.Kari said NAICON partnered the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, on drivers’ promotion, adding that that of the senior members of staff was underway.

The contending issues agreed to be implemented by the commission on March 22, 2016, are non-adherence to government circulars, lack of transparency , staff recruitment and confirmation, inadequate working tools, security issues, payment 87 promotion arrears, conduct of promotion exercise,    non release of 2014 promotion letters to two staff, confirmation and promotion of drivers, union-management relationship, medical assistant to staff, staff training and development, three demoted staff and victimization Clause.

“We have agreed to finish promotion exercise by 1st of July and the magic in that date is to ensure that nobody suffers arrears issues because we were guided at that time by a policy that says you cannot earn arrears for more than six months. Unfortunately, our internal processes have lagged on and have brought the issue and till date, it is still not resolved.

”We are going to plead that since that six months arrears don’t exist anymore, the process will continue and whenever we finish, anybody who is promoted will get his arrears fromJanuary 1,  no matter how long it takes, he appealed,” Kari appealed.