The organised labour in Kogi State on Wednesday appealed
to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct humanitarian agencies of the government
to send relief materials to the dying workers of the state as strike continues.
The secretaries of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC), Olakunle Faniyi; the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Kolawole James, and
their Joint Public Services Negotiating Counterpart, Isah Abubakar, made the
appeal in a statement issued in Lokoja.
The labour leaders lamented that the agony the
workers of the state go through is not in any way less than the experiences of
victims of natural disasters.
They noted that a situation where workers cannot
afford even one meal a day and pay the school fees of their children was
already a humanitarian issue.
"As
it stands today in Kogi State, over 30 percent
of the workers are being owed 21 months salaries, 20 percent have unpaid salaries between 11
and 18 months while about 45 percent took their salaries up till June this
year. "These are the categories of
workers state government is forcing to embrace the clock-in-clock-out policy of
the government," the statement added.
The
organised labour therefore called on the state government to treat workers with
dignity because not even in the era of slave trade slaves were force to work on
empty stomach. They noted that it was
most unfortunate that the state government instead of apologising to the
workers and their families over the untold hardship that they have been
subjected to, the government takes
delight in buying pages of newspaper to roll out falsehood on how workers have
been paid their salaries up till July.
The organised
labour therefore advised the state government to accept the reality on ground
and stop the current intimidation and coercion tactics they usually employ when
it comes to workers’ demands for their rights.
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