INDEFINITE STRIKE: NLC Shuts Down Abia State, Disrupts Chieftaincy Conferment | WATCH VIDEO
Unpaid and aggrieved Abia State Civil Servants under the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), on Tuesday, shutdown operations in the state including barricading the office of the Accountant General, Head of Service and Micheal Okpara Auditorium where a chieftaincy conferment ceremony was billed to hold.
The workers who resumed their indefinite strike today, lamented the failure of the Abia State government led by Dr Okezie Ikpeazu to implement the agreement it reached with the Union in March 2023, over backlog of salaries, pension, among other grievances.
Speaking to ALL FACTS NEWSPAPER, Comrade Engineer Ifeanyi Nwaji, member, Abia SAC, NLC insisted that the workers will no longer negotiate with the state government but will only call of the strike when they are paid.
“When we met with the government, agreements were signed we have given them time, this is May, the government has not implemented anything out of the agreements reached with them concerning the backlogs of salary owed civil servants, pension arrears, non implementation of minimum wage, HMB workers, ABSUTH, Abia Poly, both primary and secondary school teachers are owed backlogs of 30 months and above”.
The bittered worker while querying how the Abia state civil servants are surviving without salaries, added;
“We are not talking anything that is new, as long s the state government is still receive FAC allocation, we are asking nothing other than pay the civil servants , they have worked, their salaries are their rights, they should not be treated as privileges.
“All we need is alerts; we don’t want to go into negotiations or agreements again”.
Speaking also, comrade Ugochi Akoma, member of the NLC Committee; cum the state chairman, National Association of Nurses and Midwives, Abia state said;
“Abia state NLC has declared indefinite strike in the state as a result of the government failing in the agreement we had with them in March. There was a Memorandum of understand between the Labour and the government and since that time, they have not done any of those things.
“There are backlogs of salary arrears from various establishments in the state and none has been paid. There are a lot of agitations by the state workers which we have enumerated and uptil now, they have not done anything necessary.
“They need to clear all the backlogs of salaries owed workers. ABSUTH has been under lock and keys since last year; they are owed 26 months salaries, Abia poly is owed 43 months, HMB 17 months, and others, even core civil servants are owed two months”.
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