Nigerian Embassy sacks 15 local staff in Washington
News & Trends •
they also assured the workers that the processes for the payment of their entitlements had reached an advanced stage1 the nigerian embassy in washington dc has disengaged some 15 local workers at the embassy1 they said the ministry of foreign affairs abuja approved the disengagement of the workers due to some ongoing rationalisation of workers at the embassy1 the officials however said the ministry had also approved the payment of gratuities to the workers some of whom had worked with the embassy for more than 30 years1 some of the affected workers had alleged that the decision to lay them off was arbitrary1 they also alleged that the embassy had no plans to pay their gratuity and other severance benefits1 further the local staff who are mostly nigerians accused the mission of retaining the non-nigerian employees at the expense of those who are of nigerian nationality1 however the embassy officials denied that there was no prior notice to the disengaged workers saying they actually agreed to the arrangement since february 20171 senior officials at the embassy told the news agency of nigeria nan that the benefits of the 15 local workers would be paid soon1 one of the officials said in february 2017 there was a decision to disengage some of the local staff1 however they pleaded to an arrangement to be on contract for another one year which lapsed in february 2018. the ministry from abuja approved their disengagement1 as i am talking to you we have received approval from abuja to pay their benefits and they would be paid very soon. it is true that some of them have put in up to 30 years of service1 they were engaged on contracts and it is the decision of the government to either continue to renew their contract or to terminate it if their services are no longer needed1 some whose contracts were terminated in 2013 were not paid in full but we are working out their benefits to make sure that those whose appointments were terminated receive their full benefits1 it is also not true that they were arbitrarily disengaged they were aware of the contract and they signed on to it since last year1 the embassy in 2017 had disagreements with the local workers over the non-payment of salaries spanning several months leading to protest at the embassy at the time1 some of the workers also embarked on work to rule which disrupted consular services at the embassy before they were paid following approval of three months salary by the ministry. nan1