The Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, has explained the recent sack of some workers, saying the exercise at the embassy followed due process.
According to NAN, senior officials at the embassy had disclosed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja approved the disengagement of the workers due to ongoing rationalization exercise in the embassy. The embassy however said efforts toward ensuring the payment of their entitlements had reached advance stage.
“In February 2017, there was a decision to disengage some of the local staff. 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 disengagement. 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 service.
“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 needed. 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 benefits.
“It is also not true that they were arbitrarily disengaged; they were aware of the contract and they signed on to it since last year”.
Meanwhile, some of the affected staff have described their sack as illegal. They accused the embassy of retaining non-Nigerian employees at the expense of Nigerians. They also lamented that the Embassy was not making arrangement to pay them their entitlements. The aggrieved workers have threatened to take legal actions against the embassy.