Unpaid salaries: Kogi workers beg FG for relief materials

By Oyibo Salihu Lokoja

Organised labour in Kogi state has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct humanitarian agencies of the government to send relief materials to the dying workers of the state.

Th e secretaries of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Olakunle Faniyi, the Trade Union Congress, Comrade Kolawole James, and their Joint Public Services Negotiating counterpart, Comrade Isah Abubakar, made the appeal in a statement issued in Lokoja yesterday.

Th e labour leaders, who lamented that the agony the workers of the state were passing through, said the Kogi civil servants were not in any way better than the experiences of victims of natural disasters.

Th ey noted that a situation where workers could not aff ord even one meal a day and pay the school fees of their children was already a humanitarian issue.

According to them, “As it stands today in Kogi state, over 30 percent of the workers are being owed 21 months salaries, 20 percent have unpaid salaries between 11 and 18 months, while about 45 percent took their salaries up till June this year.

“Th ese are the categories of workers Kogi state government is forcing to embrace the clockin-clock-out policy of the government.

” Th e unions therefore called on the government to treat Kogi workers with dignity, saying not even in the era of slave trade that slaves are force to work on empty stomach.

Th ey noted that, it was most unfortunate that the state government, instead of apologising to the workers and their families over the untold hardship that they have been subjected to, has taken delight in buying pages of newspaper to roll out falsehood on how workers have been paid their salaries up till July.

Th e organised labour therefore advised the state government to accept the reality on ground and stop the current intimidation and coercion tactics they usually employed when it comes to workers demands.

 

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