Abia State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), at the weekend, told Governor Alex Otti that its national leadership had directed it to issue him notice of an industrial action scheduled to commence today, July 15, 2024.
The state Chairman of NLC, Ogbonnaya Okoro, disclosed this to the governor when he met with leaders of the organisedlabour in the state comprising the NLC, Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC).
Okoro listed the reasons NLC declared the industrial action to include non-payment of N30,000.00 minimum wage, N35,000.00 wage award, workers’ leave and severance allowances to the recently retired permanent secretaries and directors, issues of promotion, exclusion of labour from the workers’ verification exercise, reversal of past command promotion of some workers, among other grievances.
Okoro also said that while the state government currently pays N20,100 as minimum wage, workers in the local councils get only N18,000.
Governor Otti, while reacting to the NLC grievances and claims, said that the record available to him showed that the state is paying N30,000 minimum wage, asserting that going by the payroll he saw, he didn’t see anyone that is paid less than that monthly.
Pointing out that something might have been wrong, he instantly directed the state Accountant General to investigate the matter. On the N35,000.00 special wage award by the Federal Government to workers, which the state NLC said that the Abia State government did not pay its workers, Otti attributed this to misleading information, clarifying that the state government has not received any dime from the Federal Government to implement N35,000 wage award for workers in the state.
He said: “There have been misleading stories all over the place that the Federal Government gave monies to state governments for the implementation of the wage award. Last time I checked, there were no such monies. This state has not received a dime from the Federal Government to implement any wage award.”
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