Imo NLC inaugurates 6-man committee over 2, 000 sacked LG workers

The Nigeria Labour of Congress (NLC) on Tuesday inaugurated a six-man committee to review the policy by the Imo state government to suspend more than 2,000 local government staff from office.

The state NLC chairman, Mr. Austin Chilakpu, who sworn-in members of the committee at the NLC secretariat, Owerri, the Imo state capital, charged the committee to be thorough in the assignment.

He said that inauguration of the committee followed compliant from more than 2,000 aggrieved council workers drawn from the 27 local government areas of the to the NLC office over what they tagged the wrongful dismissal from work by the state government.

Chilakpu further noted that the angry workers not only reported that their salaries were stopped, but said that government branded them `ghost workers’, even while they were carrying on with their official duties.

“After a recent meeting between the organised labour and government, we told government that we are not comfortable with the way and manner these suspended Imo council workers were treated.

“First, that the procedures for the hiring and sacking of public servants were not followed before government came up with the suspension of these local government workers’’,

Chilakpu who was flanked during the inauguration by Mr Alloy Iwuanyanwu (state chairman, joint public service negotiating council) and Mr Paul Akalazu, state chairman of Trade Union Congress, said future labour action would depend on the report of the committee.

He said that the committee has two weeks to present its report to labour leaders in the state, adding `you should ensure that you avoid any interference in your assignment’’.

The six-man committee which four members were drawn from from the local government system and two from the civic service union in the three senatorial zones of Orlu, Owerri and Okigwe.

The committee members includes: Kingsley Owuaman, Damian Anyanwu, Malice Diala, Joseph Nwaigbo, Uche Anyanwu (chairman), Monday Onyeneke (secretary).

Responding, the committee the chairman of the committee Mr Uche Anyanwu thanked the leadership of organized labour for finding them worthy to service in the committee.

He said that his members saw the assignment as a rare privilege and would do everything in their powers to resist any pressure that will adversely affect their assignment, adding “we will equally report back within time frame’’