Abia State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has issued an order to workers in the state not to partake in the online verification exercise being organized by the state government.
This directive was contained in a press statement released by the union on Saturday, 11 May 2024.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe union said the verification imposes a financial burden on the workers, especially after a first verification had been done months before and salaries are still withheld by the government for over 7 months now.
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The government had asked for an on-line verification of State Civil and Public Servants in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and 17 local government councils in the state. The verification was scheduled to hold from 10 to 31 May 2024. It was aimed at fishing our ghost workers and determining the genuine ones.
The statement signed by Okoro Ogbonnaya, State chairman, and Emma Alozie, Secretary, said the Congress after an emergency meeting and critical review of the announcement by the government, resolved that the exercise should be on hold in order to avoid industrial crisis in the state. It said the exercise would be on hold pending the time the issue would be discussed between the Congress and the government.
The union said the state government failed to reach out to the union before taking the decision to conduct another verification exercise when the workers are suffering as a result of seven months unpaid salaries.
The statement said: “It is a slight for the government to again organize such sensitive programme for workers without recourse to… the umbrella body of the workers.”
The union sees it as anti-worker especially due to the economic hardship faced by these workers with their meager salaries and also as retrogressive to the earlier vision of the government to fish out ghost workers.
