NLC, TUC denied betraying state workers over Paris/ London refund

The organized labour in Bayelsa state has debunked claims of its betrayal of the workforce in the state over the sharing formular of the second tranche of the Paris/London refund released by the federal government.

The state of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), John Ndiomu, and his Trade Union Congress (TUC), counterpart, Tari Dounana, who spoke exclusively with our correspondent in Yenagoa after an interactive meeting with the state government on how to use the funds, noted that contrary to what “mischief makers” in the state claimed, the 75 percent directive by the federal government on paying of backlog arrears of salaries, have been achieved.

Comrade Dounana, who gave the breakdown, said that their sole aim of meeting the government was based on the clearing the backlog of arrears, disclosing that out of the N10billion refund, N919 million was allocated to the local government council, about N7 billion will go for salary payment for state workers, pensioners and those on death benefits.

He also commended the federal government for promptly publishing the right figures released to states unlike what happened with the first tranche, advising that it should be a continuous process so that it
will enable the public and workers know what was allocated to their states.

He urged the federal government to henceforth remove the clause of what percentage should be used for the payment of salaries, but rather an order of 100 percent salary payment, adding that if clauses are
injected into the monies it will pave way for other anomalies that will be capitalized on the clause.

The NLC Chairman, Mr. Ndiomu, stated that the earlier agreement was for government to pay two months salaries but when they did the calculation, it was over the stipulated 75 percent for salary backlog because of the huge wage bill of the state and the additional local government council salaries, noting that they will continue to engage government and ensure the workerforce of the state gets what is due them.

He submitted that the same way they have been engaging government to ensure that not one naira of their salaries of 2017 is owe them, they will continue to work and ensure all the backlogs of last year is
paid, noting that the assurances are that there’s a relative increase in the allocation compare to last year.

In his brief, the Secretary of the state NLC, Comrade Dinepri Yorukere, said “We looked into the figures before decision were taken, we are not on any persuasion or either compelled do agree but we
critically examined what the implications were, the LGA council monies were removed, pensioners added and we all know the huge wage bill of the state so we considered all of that so that government can also have something to run with.

He encourage the workers to be confident in the leadership of the various unions in the state, adding that there’s no atom of betrayal in the negotiations process.

Akam James, Yenagoa