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Olabode Adaramola
Rising from an emergency meeting held at the labour house in Minna on Thursday, Niger state workers have again rejected the planned slash in their salaries by the state government .
This is just as the organized labour has said it will organized “special prayer session to seek Devine intervention in the matter”.
Government had recently informed the organised labour unions in the state that it will slash salaries of civil servant by 30 percent and those of local government employees by 40 percent, blaming it’s decision on poor revenue receipt from Federation Account Committee ( FAAC)
.
A communique issued at the end of the emergency meeting, a copy of which was made available to the newsmen in Minna at the weekend, labour said “it has also rejected any form of renegotiation of salaries as it is not in tandem with any extant laws of the land”.
According to the communique jointly signed by th state NLC Chairman, Comrade Yakubu Garba and state Trade Union Congress(TUC) Chairman, Comrade Tanimu Yunusa, the congers hinged it’s decision on rejecting the salary slash on the fact that “civil servants in Niger state were not part of the beneficiaries of state’s COVID- 19 palliative because they will continue to enjoy 100 percent salaries as confirmed by the Secretary to the Niger State Government( SSG), in his capacity as Chairman of Niger state Task Force on COVID- 19”.
According to the document, the position of labour was also informed by the fact that President Mohammadu Buhari “had earlier directed the suspension of all forms of deductions from state government allocations to enable the governors to meet with the responsibilities of salary payment which is a first line charge”.
The meeting also asked the government to pay withheld salaries for the months of April and May, 2020 to some certain categories of workers.
The Congress therefore resolved to host special prayer session to invoke Devine intervention that will lead to the payment of salaries.
Finally, the meeting “expressed loss of trust in Niger state government and expressed serious fear over the faith of 7.5 percent CPS (contributory pension scheme) being administered by the government”.
