Disengaged Staff of Catholic Diocese Lament
Unavailability of resources necessitated decision: Diocese. A quarter of our basic salaries could be better than sack: Former Staff
Fr. Tor & Mr. Ihomun
ERDOO DUE
The Catholic Diocese of Makurdi on the 5th day of May, 2020, had about 2000 of its schools staff retrenched across over 50 schools within the Diocese. With the Covid-19 pandemic biting harder, residents reacted that this was a move at the wrong time. One of the affected staff who preferred not to be mentioned said they got text messages that summoned them to an emergency meeting, only to be greeted with the (unfortunate letter of retrenchment). He said the trauma is unbearable, when he said a quarter of their salary would have been better than a sack at a time like this. He lamented that with a family of four, life has been unbearable since he was delisted from the payroll of Makurdi Diocese.
Speaking also on the issue, a principal of one of the secondary schools within the diocese who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “We were not called for any negotiation or deliberation what so ever, when we were called for a meeting we were only informed of the Diocese decision on disengagement of staff; an order we obeyed and disseminated letters to staff excluding security men and some essential workers, if we were asked a better decision would have been taken.”
Mr. Nathaniel Awuapila, a Peace Advocacy Expert said the decision by the Diocese was not in tune with peace sensitivity. He said some of the staff must have worked in the schools for free before payments commenced. He also said it would have been better to have a meeting with the affected staff and a consensus agreement reached or relate the matter to the respective parishioners who established these schools, for stipends than retrenchment. He further said the Diocese did not put into consideration the dependents of the affected staff. Mr. Awuapila faulted the decision on poor judgment and call on the employers of labour, to be considerate of future consequences in sacking staff, in order to avoid conflicts that may arise.
For Dan Morgan Ihomun, a public affairs analyst and parent in one of the schools appreciated the Catholic Church which has given a lot to the society, but “for the church to lay off people at this time is unacceptable, unfair and humiliating. Unemployment is on the rise, a situation even the church is aware of. The church should not be seen as a profit maximization and wealth creation entity, rather it should demonstrate the charity and sustainability it is known for; setting the pace for other organizations that are currently retrenching staff thereby making life difficult amid COVID-19.” He further said “most of these people have families that depend directly on them. What happens to those dependants and even the staff? Suicide, depression and broken marriages are inevitable. It means a lot to be rejected by the church you look up to at this critical moment.”
Morgan further said “there are better ways of tackling this. Even if school fees are not being paid, reduction of the normal salaries to a minimum, installment payment of salaries and cutting down cost would have done justice to the situation.”
Responding on behalf of the Diocese, Very Rev. Fr. Terungwa Tor, Director Catholic Education Services Makurdi Diocese and Principal Mt. St. Michael’s Secondary School Aliade said “the disengagement of staff at this moment is a good step taken by the Diocese especially with the shutdown of schools. He said, “it is true that staff of Catholic Schools within the Diocese (primary and secondary) have been downsized particularly teaching and some non teaching staff (non essential workers). The technical disengagement which took place on the 5th day of May 2020 and has posed a lot of hardship on the staff became necessary following the unavailability of resources to continue paying salaries because students are no longer going to schools and school fees are not been paid so, there is no means of generating the money used in paying staff. However, when the ban on schools is off staff are advised to resume work. That is, if they are still interested in working for the Diocese. Those who do not resume after one week will definitely be replaced.”
On whether the stakeholders were carried along in reaching the decision, Fr. Tor said: “the Bishop consulted principal officers of the various schools and even staff and parents in order to avoid unnecessary litigations. There is no arrears to be paid to any staff as all First Term and Second Term salaries have been paid fully before disengagement letters as directed by the Bishop were issued. Principals and some essential workers such as security personnel have been left on ground and are being paid allowances respectively. So, it is no big deal the staff appreciate the fact they were informed on time and have resumed other activities like farming, pending the resumption of schools. Hence, it will be good if this is seen as an Employer-Employee relationship matter and not a religious affair.”
Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, jobs of many have been threatened in the non- governmental sector and issues of staff retrenchment may be on the rise from an economic perspective. But some feel the Makurdi Diocese would have pushed further than lay off staff at the time it did.
Joseph Iju said the trauma of getting sacked alone is worse than the ravaging pandemic. But how this issues unfolds is a post Covid-19 discussion.
