Health workers gear for industrial action over deduction in pay

Public health workers in the 18 local government area of Cross River state are gearing for an industrial action over the arbitrary deduction from their salaries.

The workers who collected their March salaries last week lamented the amount of money deducted from their pay.

However, Investigations conducted by Daily Times revealed that between N10, 000 to N20, 000 or more was deducted from each of the workers’ salary.

It was gathered that the state government has not explained why the deduction was made and no pay slip issued.

Speaking with our correspondent, some of the workers said the deduction shattered their budget as the money apart from coming late, it was deducted.

“The deduction was not tax as they taxed us separately. Our counterparts in the state have collected May salary and no deduction made in their pay but here we are, we have not collected April and so much have been deducted from it,” one of the aggrieved workers, Chief Okon Etim, lamented.

Chief Etim said that “the one they have given me, they slashed it in such a way that I cannot do any tangible thing with it.

The worse part of it was that, those who collected facility (Loan) in the Banks, suffered more as the Banks seized the entire money” Mrs Ikwo Okon Archibong said that she was yet to pay her children school fees, her house rent has expired and she find it difficult to feed herself and children as she was a widow.

“I collected N60, 000 as salary, the bank deducted the facility I collected, government deducted over N10, 000 as tax and other N15, 000, how much is left, yet they pay only March, what of April and May?” she asked.

When this newspaper contacted the commissioner for health Dr Inyang Asibong on phone she referred us to the Director General Primary Health Care Development Agency (CRSPHCDA) Dr Betta Edu.

Dr. Edu said the workers transferred their posting to urban areas but continue to earn salaries as rural people. “The rural people have rural allowance that makes their salaries higher than others.

It is an incentives to attract people to work in the rural areas so when you transfer your services out of the rural areas, you seize to collect that allowance.

During the verification exercise, it was discovered that thousands of these workers earned more than what they suppose” Secondly, she said other categories of workers, given their relationship with those pay rolling have their salaries increase more than their rates such that at the end of every month, these money are share with these pay roll staff.

“There was a case where somebody was paid N250, 000 a month against salary of seventy thousand” According to her, “We have to normalize these things that were the reason for the cutting of these fraudulent people’s salaries.

However, those who were under paid have their salaries restored. On 4th May when I got to my office, over 30 people came to my office and I invite them one after the other.”

But the workers contacted again said, Dr Edu was not speaking the truth as she has accepted her fault and agreed to return the deducted money back as workers threatened blowing the whistle to relevant authorities.