Ekiti workers vow to resist salary cuts
…Demand payment of outstanding salaries
As the lockdown caused by the spread of coronavirus continues to have adverse effects on the economy, the organised labour in Ekiti state has told Governor Kayode Fayemi not to contemplate any move to slash salaries despite the slump in the revenue of government.
The labour unions, comprising Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, also requested immediate payment of outstanding salaries by Governor Fayemi, to ease the effects of the lockdown on the populace.
Governor Fayemi, had on Tuesday, announced the slashing of salaries of himself, the Deputy Governor, Bisi Egbeyemi and political appointees by 50 per cent.
They spoke at a press conference jointly addressed by the Chairmen of NLC, Comrade Kolapo Olatunde and his TUC counterpart, Comrade Sola Adigun in Ado Ekiti.
In his address, the NLC boss asserted that the menace of COVID-19 has affected every worker, saying this time remains the most appropriate opportunity to assuage their sufferings by paying their salaries promptly as well as distributing palliatives.
“We are still being owed three months’ salary arrears, outstanding leave bonuses, backlog of promotion arrears, while the minimum wage was yet to be implemented across board.
“As of today, the local government workers and primary school teachers are owed six months’ salary arrears while the secondary school teachers and civil servants are owed three months respectively.
“We have waited for over one year and we have done our best and made the right sacrifices.
“The national president of the NLC gave me a matching order to tell our governor that the salaries of our workers can’t take them home and there shouldn’t be any reason for government to think of pay cut in Ekiti,” he said.
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Olatunde appreciated the government and health workers in Ekiti state for working hard to reduce the number of victims of COVID-19 to eight, adding that “the reduction in the number was because the government woke up early to take precautionary measures.”
The TUC Chairman, Comrade Adigun, said what the workers are collecting in Nigeria was never a living wage, expressing optimism that they will breathe a sigh of relief someday.
“We thank the governor and members of his cabinet for sacrificing part of their living wage to fight the menace of COVID-19. Workers are not collecting a living wage, so we are not expecting any reduction in our salaries,” he asserted.
Adigun advised the government to deploy more energy to promote the welfare of the people and devise ways to defeat COVID-19 pandemic, Boko Haram insurgents, kidnapping, corruption and all manner of criminality.
The TUC boss advised the Ekiti state government to encourage farming among civil servants, in the spirit of diversification, to halt sole dependence on federal allocation.
