Despite the myriad of challenges facing workers, top among which is the issue of several months of unpaid salaries,Nigerian workers will today join their counterparts across the world to mark May Day. Our correspondents across the states capture the mood of workers in this report.
Workers in the country under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) last Tuesday, submitted a new proposal of N56,000 minimum wage to the federal government, an issue which is expected to dominate discussions at this year’s May Day celebration.
This is coming just as states are battling to meet salary commitment, following dwindling federal government allocation as a result of fall in price of oil. The President Muhammadu Buhari administration shortly after coming into office, granted states a bailout to enable them clear backlog of salaries owed their staff but a recent report by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), alleged that the bailout fund was diverted by most of the benefitting states, with many of them still owing salaries.
Findings by our reporters also show that many states are yet to comply with the payment of the N18,000 minimum wage signed into law more than five years ago.
Findings in the states showed that more states in the northern part of the country are up to date in their salary obligations to staff. Borno, Sokoto, Jigawa, Katsina, Gombe and Kebbi are some of the states where civil servants have been paid their salaries up to date.
Unending Hope for unpaid Bayelsa workers
This is not the best of times for the Bayelsa State Government and its staff.
While the case of staff of local government councils has become pathetic, with government owing staff of the eight local councils salaries ranging from six to 13 months, staff of state government-owned establishments, including the university, are being owed between three to four months’ salary.
Worst still for the state work force was the concern expressed by the state deputy governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (Retd), over the economic crisis in the state, especially as it concerns workers’ salaries. He said that though the issue of salary delay was not peculiar to Bayelsa state, the present administration had met with the state Chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and deviced various ways of paying the arrears owed.
Jonah explained that the delay in payment was caused by dwindling resources accruing to the state from federal finances, which he said, has reduced drastically and deductions on past loans, bonds and over payments of oil blocs payments.
In Imo, workers may boycott celebration
The tussle between the Government of Imo State led by Owelle Rochas Okorocha and the organised labour in the state seems to be unabated as workers gear up for a fresh showdown with the government.
We gathered that aggrieved workers have vowed to remain in their houses instead of going to Heroes Square to observe May Day celebration on empty stomach.
The workers complained of hunger as they resolved to show their uncompromising attitude to the government for reducing their salaries and allowances by 30 per cent.
Signs of truancy and other combative attitudes of workers were visible during a visit to the state secretariat.
“We are going to boycott the May Day Rally to show government our grievances and drive home our demand,” one of the workers at the secretariat who craved anonymity for fear of victimisation said.
Meanwhile, the Joint Committee of Labour and government have agreed to pay up to 80 per cent salary to Imo workers.
Sokoto workers hail government over salary
The scenario in Sokoto seems to be that of praises all round.
The workers in the Seat of the Caliphate, especially civil servants, registered their appreciation to the state governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal for his consistency in paying their salaries despite the economic reality confronting Nigeria lately.
Some of the workers who spoke to us in Sokoto said they had seen the wisdom in former governor and now Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko’s choice of a successor.
According to them, they were not surprised that Tambuwal never skipped payment of workers’ salaries for once since he became governor because his predecessor, Wamakko laid such foundation.
…Katsina too
Just like in Sokoto, workers in Katsina State, have little or nothing to complain about in the last one year as they have continued to enjoy their work owing perhaps, to the labour friendly disposition of the current administration in the state.
Speaking with our correspondent, the Katsina state NLC chairman, Tanimu Lawal Saulawa, said the decision by the current state government to settle all outstanding gratuity and pensions to deserving civil servants was also one of the major strides recorded by the workers.
He recalled that the NLC in the state, had cause to repeatedly engage the former administration on the settlement of pension and gratuities of workers “all to no avail. But the current administration used the N11 billion bailout funds to settle this”.
“We are monitoring the payment. State workers have all been paid and that for the local government is almost at the verge of completion,” Saulawa said and lauded the effort of the state government in ensuring good work environment for the state’s labour force.
Jigawa workers have reason to celebrate
The condition of civil servants in Jigawa State since the inception of the incumbent state government led by Governor Badaru is relatively good and appreciable as their salary is paid at due time.
Unlike civil servants in many other states of the federation whose government owes them salary arrears of several months, civil servants in Jigawa state were paid their April salary on April 27th.
With the exception of non professional staff from the state ministry of health who have decried the move by the government to cut their salary, other cadres of staff appear to be okay as no complains have come from them.
According to the state Head of Service, Alhaji Inuwa Tahir, the state spends N3.6 billion in paying workers salary monthly, and they have been paying it uninterrupted since assuming office on May 29th, 2015.
In Rivers State, workers express concern over security situation
To an average worker in Rivers State, the most disturbing issue in the year under review has been that of insecurity. Several workers in the public and private sectors, including medical doctors, lecturers, legal practitioners and journalists, have either been kidnapped, robbed or even killed within the past one year by hoodlums.
Only last week, a senior lecturer with the Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, was murdered by yet-to-be identified gunmen at his home-town, Yeghe community in Gokana local government area of the state.
Also, the issue of payment of salaries to civil servants in both the state civil service and the local government system was not regularly at a time within the past one year, but feelers have it that while workers in the state civil service have been paid up to March 2016, those at the local government are still being owed about three months salary.
According to Comrade Hyginus Chika Onuegbu, chairman of Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state, although salaries of workers in the state civil service are regularly paid, it does not come on time.
Onuegbu said, “I think the major concern for workers in Rivers state for this past one year has been the issue of insecurity. You remember a lot of medical doctors and other professionals complained kidnap. The other one is that salaries have been paid but they don’t come on time. There has been this agitation for increment in salary.”
In Borno, workers recount how they survived Boko Haram
In Borno, the workers will not only be counting their pains and gains but will as well celebrate their survival from the hands of Boko Haram insurgents.
The insurgency ravaging the North East has in no small measure dealt with the workforce in the region.
Borno which prides itself officially as “home of peace”, is now perhaps the worst hit by the activities of the terrorists as thousands of workers flee the state at the peak of the Crisis.
Many civil servants including health workers and school teachers lost their lives to the merchants of death.
Other workers who survived the Boko Haram onslaught were displaced from their homes while their properties were either looted or razed by the terrorists.
Presently, most of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) residing in various IDPs CAMPS across Maiduguri and beyond are local government workers from the 22 local governments that were formally in the hands of the merchants of death before the Nigerian Army recaptured the local governments.
Lagos enhancing workers’ productivity with incentives
Although about 24 states of the federation are currently reeling under the yoke of economic crisis occasioned by the fall in international oil price, which consequently led to the decrease in revenue allocations to states, Lagos State has managed to live above board in its obligation to its work force.
Lagos state does not have any issue with regards to the prompt payment of salary. It is one state in the country that strongly believes in enhancing workers’ productivity with incentives.
Going down the memory lane, it will be discovered that this has always been the trend in the state since 1999 when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu came up with a viable financial template that liberated the state from depending on federal allocation.
The trend which continued under the immediate past governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola is now being taken to a new level under the leadership of the current governor, Mr. Akin Ambode, who incidentally, was one of the brains behind the financial re-engineering that has solidified the economic base of the state under Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Kogi workers lament non payment of salaries
The general apathy which pervades the entire workforce in Kogi State since the inception of the present administration, has till now, not subsided. The workers in Kogi have taken their position that the May Day celebration would be lowkey as, according to them, there is nothing to celebrate.
Some staff of the state government said there is no love lost between workers and the present administration. This follows a history of broken agrements between the workers and governmnet. For instance, the organised labour led by Onuh Edoka, had agreed with the executive that salary be paid ahile screening of workers goes on but government according to labour, did not keep to the agreement. The labour has also condemned the suspension of permanent secretaries in the state, a move they said is against civil service rules. All these, according to labour, has summed up to mean that the government has no regard for workers.
Worried over the non-payment of workers’ salary and other issues affecting the welfare of its members, the Kogi state organised labour union, made up of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) have made up their mind to resume their suspended strike action to press home their demand.
The unions in a communiqué, jointly signed by the NLC Chairman, Onuh Edoka; TUC Chairman, Ojo Ranti Matthew; and JNC, Chairman, Aaron Akeji, and made available to journalists, condemned in strong terms, the payment of salary in peicemeal, adding that the payment of salaries for the months of October and November 2015 spanned three weeks for each month.
The unions, rising frm a meeting, called on the state government to use the allocation it got for the month of February 2016 to offset the outstanding salaries for the month of December, 2015.
Some of the workers, who spoke to LEADERSHIP Sunday, asked rhetorically what there was to celebrate, saying only payment of their salaries would give them a reason to celebrate.
However, the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, said it would be inappropriate for the workers to blame his government for the failure of the past administrations, saying he had been able to offset two months’ salaries within his first 57 days in office.
“Labour was on an indefinite strike before the inauguration of the present administration but the governor intervened to settle the industrial dispute,” he said.
In Niger state, it is pension palaver
In Niger State, the workers have been agitating for the repeal of the contributory pension scheme law and the refund of their 7.5 per cent contribution to the pension scheme, alleging cases of mismanagement of the fund.
The workers proposed a Bill to the state House of Assembly sponsored by Abdulmalik Bosso member representing Bosso Constituency of the state for the repeal of the law which has been passed into law.
The agitation therefore is now between the labour and the governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello as the NLC Chairman, Yahaya Idris Ndako, over the week, called on the governor to immediately assent to the law passed by the state assembly without further delaye.
The law passed by the state house of assembly seeks the refund of 7.5 per cent of the workers’ salaries deducted into the pension scheme and that workers in the employ of the state before 2006 when the contributory pension scheme took effect should be exempted from it.
The governor however at a stakeholders meeting last week said that exempting those who have up to 20 years in the service from the scheme is unattainable and that the contributory pension scheme was the best.
Since the present administration came to be, the agitation has been on for the refund of the contributory pension scheme by the organised labour yet there is no sign that the governor may heed to their demand.
In Kebbi, Civil Servants Yet To Enjoy N18,000 Minimum Wage
The civil service in Kebbi is characterised by poor salary structure, years of non-implementation of promotions, poor welfare, lack of motivation, lack of capacity building and apathy which have led to low morale in the service. Presently, workers in the state do not enjoy the N18,000 salary structure which they have been battling for correction by engaging in numerous strikes through their mother unions, NLC and TUC. Although the salary issues predate the present administration, the present leadership crisis within the NLC in the state has made matters worse for the state workers. Investigation revealed that the current Chairman of the state NLC has been dragged to court over eligibility issue by the former NLC Chairman, Sadiq Kaoje.
The State NLC Secretary, Hussani Mohammad Yauri alongside Abubakar Umar, the State NLC Auditor also wrote a petition against the state Chairman, Comrade Murtala Usman at the NLC headquarters in Abuja.
The dust against the present chairman has seriously affected the pressure group to make any meaningful impact in its demand for workers’ right. The union which is supposed to represent them and fight for their cause has been enmeshed in crisis, amaking it a ‘toothless barking dog’.
In Osun, unpaid salaries haunt Aregbesola
Osun State was one of the few states in the federation reputed for full and prompt payment of salaries of its workforce until the shortfall in revenue allocations to states from the federation account.
Even before allocation from the federation account began to dwindle, the state government never missed any opportunity to tell its workforce that staff emoluments accounted for a bulk of the allocation received, thereby making the execution of capital projects difficult.
Consequently, when the state was confronted with dwindling allocation from the federal government, things got worse as it could no longer afford to meet its obligations to workers as at when due.
When the situation persisted, Governor Rauf Aregbesola had no option than to tell the world the situation on ground saying that he was in a quagmire on how to resolve the issue, and called for federal government assistance.
The federal government magnanimously decided to bailout the states in the form of long term loan, hence, Osun State was bailed out with N34.988 billion.
Despite the bailout, government had to sit down with the leadership of labour unions to fashion out how payment of salaries could be sustained beyond the June 2016 period the bailout covers.
Eventually, government and labour in a Memorandum of Understanding came up with the payment of full salaries to workers on grade levels 01-07, while officers on 08 and above will go home with half salaries until the economic situation of the state improves.
Plateau Still Owing Workers
Civil servants in Plateau State have lamented the inconsistency in the payment of workers’ salaries by the state government.
A civil servant who did not want his name in print says that the last salary he got was that of January 2016, lamenting that this is in spite of the salary bail out the state got from the federal government.
He pointed out that even the January salary that was just paid, not all the civil servant were paid because majority were still undergoing screening exercise to determine their status.
“Half of the state civil servants are yet to be paid their January salary as I speak to you now,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, NLC Chairman in the state, Comrade Jibrin Bancir, said only 70 per cent of the state work force had been paid their January salary.
He attributed this to the ongoing verification exercise being carried out by the state government to know the status of civil servants on the state government payroll.
Bauchi state haunted by Ghost workers, owing salaries
In Bauchi, the relationship between the state government and the NLC has been hot and cold to say the least.
This is because when Governor Mohammed Abubakar was elected, before his assumption into office on May 29th, he had to beg the workers to call off an indefinite strike action that they had embarked on over nonpayment of salaries.
The governor who immediately on assumption of office did not waste any time in offsetting the four months salary arrears, was applauded by the National president of the NLC who wrote a letter of commendation over the way Governor Abubakar responded to the plight of workers.
Recently, however, there has been friction between the government and NLC over the verification exercise embarked upon by the state government resulting in the nonpayment of workers deemed to be ghost workers.
The government said it has uncovered about 19,241 ghost workers in its workforce, saving the administration the sum of N797,465,000. The ghost workers were discovered as a result of the verification exercise being carried to ascertain the strength of its workforce.
There are however genuine workers who have been affected by the verification because of their BVN and have received their salaries since January.
The NLC had threatened to embark on a warning strike if these workers were not paid.
Ondo workers lament nonpayment of salaries
In Ondo State, the prevailing workers issues are the constant disagreement between the workers and the state government over unpaid salaries.
Presently, the state government is owing them about five months salaries.
Although the state government attributed its inability to pay to the fall in oil revenue which drastically reduced government income, some workers accused the government of spending millions of naira to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the creation of the state when workers were not paid for several months.
Some of the workers who preferred anonymity accused government of insensitivity to workers’ plight, saying the situation had placed them and their families in difficult situation.
Angry Ebonyi workers decry death of sacked colleagues
Workers in Ebonyi State have decried the sudden death of Mr. Sunday Onwe of security department who was sacked alongside other 83 staff of the state College of Education, Ikwo, by the Governor David Umahi-led administration over alleged irregularities in their appointments.
Governor Umahi about a month ago, gave an order in Abakaliki while receiving reports of the committees set up to investigate the institution’s administration, state’s higher education sector and the international market, respectively, to disengage 83 staff of the institution within one week.
In Kwara, workers yet to receive March salaries
In Kwara State, most civil servants and pensioners have not received their March salaries due to the ongoing biometric screening of workers in the state. It’s doubtful whether they would receive their May salary as at when due, as government has suspended payment of salaries till the screening exercise is completed.
As at the time of this report, only workers from about seven out of 16 government local government areas in the state had been screened.
The core state civil servants and pensioners are scheduled to be screened in the month of May.
Presently, local government workers and pensioners in the state are being owed five months salaries by the local government authorities.
The primary and junior secondary school teachers as well as staff of the state basic education board are also owed five months salaries.
Workers of the state water board are being owed four months salaries. These workers are currently on strike.
The state government through the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Dr Muideen Akorede said the four months salary arrears of these workers had been approved, but said that they had not been able to access the money because of the ongoing screening exercise.
Akorede appealed to the striking workers to return to work because of the suffering their strike action has inflicted on the populace.
He assured that very soon, the workers will receive their pending salaries.
[Leadership]
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