The Peoples Democratic Party is broke and as a result, cut the salaries of its workers at the national headquarters by 35 per cent, Punch reports.
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The leadership of the former ruling PDP decided to slash the salaries of the workers because of the dwindling income of the party, which was ousted from power barely four months ago after it had controlled power at the centre for 16 years.
Some of the workers at the party’s Wadata House national secretariat in Abuja stated on Monday that they had agreed to the cut.
They however warned that with the salary cut, the members of the party’s National Working Committee must not go ahead with the decision to reduce the party’s workforce by 50 per cent.
They told Punch that they received 65 per cent of their normal monthly salaries in August.
One of the workers, who asked not to be named, said, “We have received 65 per cent of our normal salaries for the month of August due to the claim by the NWC members that the party is broke.
“We can as well attest to the fact that the party is broke because all what we made during the elections had been squandered.
“Now, it is not that we are happy to have received the salary cut, but we all agreed that instead of them sacking us, let’s see what we could do with the salary cut.”
The PDP National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oldipo, in a memo dated July 29, 2015, to all directors, with reference number PS/DD/HOD/SAs/PAs and Establishment Staff, had stated that the party would sack 50 per cent of its workers.
Oladipo’s memo was titled, “Re-organization and restructuring of staff at the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party”.
As stated by him, the decision to cut down on the number of staff, as well as other measures, were taken at the 406th meeting of the NWC, where he stated the report “on the reorganization and restructuring of staff at the national secretariat” and decisions were approved.
He had also stated that the sacking of workers would be affected notwithstanding the cut in their pay.
He listed the decision taken by the NWC to include “reduction of the allowance of all NWC members by 50 per cent and reduction in the number of security personnel attached to the national officers by 50 per cent” and “reduction of the salaries and allowances of all staff (Establishment and Staff of NWC members) by 50 per cent effective August, 2015.”
The other decision of the party, Oladipo said, included the “abolition of Research Directorate and transfer of its functions to the Peoples Democratic Institute.”
“Establishment staff who would remain are required to obtain individual letter of revalidation from their state chapters within one month of this circular to their suitability for service at the national secretariat,” Oladipo’s memo added.
The workers are however saying the NWC must not close the secretariat during the forthcoming Eid-el Kabir break, saying that the workers had agreed to abide by the public holiday as declared by the Federal Government.
A PDP worker said: “The NWC is toying with the idea of closing the secretariat, and asked us to go home and bring letters from the party at the state level.
“They want to do it in such a way that anyone who doesn’t have such a letter should not return to work. We won’t agree to that if that is their plan.”
Oladipo told our source on Monday that the need to cut cost necessitated the reduction in salaries.
He stated the action didn’t affect only the workers but that personal staff and emoluments of members of the NWC had also been cut by at least 50 per cent.
He said, “We are restructuring the party. You know we are in opposition now and both the workers and the management have resolved their differences amicably.
“Like I said, we are in opposition. We run the party from contributions from our members and a lot of them are now demoralised and that is why we have to cut cost.
“The small running cost for NWC members has been cut by half and our personal employees have also been reduced by half.
“Even with this, we are determined to give Nigerians a credible alternative in 2019. We are focused and we are doing everything to refocus the party.”
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