The Judicial Service Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) in Anambra said its members in the Customary Court of Appeal (CCA) chapter would not return to work until deductions from their salaries were returned.
Mark Ifezue, Chairman of JUSUN in the state, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka, the state capital on Monday.
Mr Ifezue said over N14 million was deducted from CCA workers salary under the Contributory Pensions Scheme and Housing Fund but was not remitted to the appropriated agencies.
He said after over a year that the state government suspended the policy, deductions from workers’ salaries were neither remitted nor returned to them.
“Deductions for contributory pension for about four to five months were not remitted to the fund managers and not returned to workers.
“There is also the issue of housing fund which was not remitted to the Federal Mortgage Bank.
“We are talking about over N14 million deducted from workers salary; for over a year the court refused to clear the matter after several meetings, that is why we resorted to strike action.
“What workers are saying is that if it did not remit the deductions to the fund managers, they should return it to us,” Mr Ifezue said.
He said it was unfortunate that while workers in the High Court had received their refund, the CCA had refused to respond to its workers’ demand.
He said the only condition for them to return to work was for them to refund the deductions made from them.
“We have no problem with the state government because it did not deduct the money in question.
“Our grievances are with the management of CCA which has refused to give us the deductions made from workers’ salary.
“The state High Court has refunded its workers and the workers are happy, they are not on strike.
“All we want is that management should get our money from wherever it kept it and refund us as soon as it does that we will go back to work,” Mr Ifezue said.
However, Kenneth Nwoye, Registrar of CCA in Anambra, told NAN that there were industrial issues but refused to respond to questions.
Mr Nwoye said the president of the CCA was not in town and that he (Registrar) had not been cleared to make statements on the matter.
“Thank you, it is good that we respond to these questions but I do not have clearance from my president to do so,” he said.
The judicial workers began the strike on May 8.
