Labour in Kogi State has cancelled 2017 May Day celebration.
The workers said this was due to government’s handling of members’ welfare by the Yahaya Bello administration.
The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Onuh Edoka and his Trade Union Congress, (TUC), counterpart, Comrade Ojo Ronti, announced the cancellation in a statement issued in Lokoja yesterday.
The union said there was “no reason to celebrate as workers and pensioners have been experiencing hardship in the past 14 months due to the non-payment of salaries and pensions”.
They explained that the non-payment of salaries to a large number of workers and pensioners have destroyed the civil service and the workforce.
The labour leaders also expressed dissatisfaction with the non-release of the report of the staff screening review and appeal committee to the union to study and come up with its observations and position.
They faulted the claims by some government aides on social media that all workers have been paid their salaries.
Recall that NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, during the week, in a statement, lamented that Bello’s treatment of workers.
“It is interesting to note that Kogi tops the chart of non-salary paying states with 15 months backlog in spite of warehousing for the government of Yahaya Bello the first bail-out fund and the second bail-out,” Wabba said.
“Salaries and pensions constitute fundamental human rights of workers and pensioners and nothing should be done to threaten these or else the lives of workers, pensioners and their families are put in jeopardy”.
He advised Yahaya Bello to pay up outstanding salaries, pensions and negotiate with striking workers in tertiary institutions without any further delay.
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