Abia NLC urges Otti to pay workers allowances as proof of goodwill me

 By Ijendu Iheaka

Umuahia, June 27, 2024.

The Chairman, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Abia chapter, Mr Okoro Ogbonnaya has urged Abia government to consider paying workers their outstanding allowances also to prove its avowed goodwill towards them.

Ogbonnaya disclosed this in an interview with our Correspondent in Umuahia on Thursday.

The labour leader in Abia was reacting to the state government's promise to begin paying Abia workers backlog of salary arrears owed them in tranches from July.

The state's Finance Commissioner, Mr Mike Akpara said during a briefing in Umuahia on Tuesday that government would start paying the arrears begining with tertiary Institutions from July.

Ogbonnaya said that Abia government under Gov. Alex Otti has not been taking proper care of civil servants in the state.

He said that from the time of Gov. Theodore Orji, the state government stopped paying workers their leave and promotion allowances.

He said NLC had written to Otti's administration notifying it of the need to resume and clear those arrears but has not received any response since then.

"For Abia government to confirm its avowed goodwill towards Abia workers, it should consider paying them the backlog of arrears of leave and promotion allowances owed them.

"These allowances were stopped by the Theodore Orji's administration. 

"Although this government is paying workers on or before 28th day of the month, it has not started paying us those allowances", he said.

Ogbonnaya said Abia was yet to begin paying its workers the N30, 000 old minimum wage and also N35, 000 wage award approved by the federal government to cushion inflation effects.

He also urged the state government to urgently resolve the problem of verified workers who are yet to get their salaries since eight months now.

He said that Abia NLC was not opposed to government verifying true civil service workers but opposed to online verification which could work against the aim of verification.

He said that labour wanted the government to also use civil servants and heads of departments and ministry of finance to conduct a credible verification.

Ogbonnaya said that government should not use consultants to conduct verification of workers because the consultants could work against government's purpose of the project.