Workers will Resist Pay Cut in Ekiti, Labour Tells Fayemi

As the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have adverse effect on the economy, the organised labour in Ekiti State has told the state Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, not to contemplate any move to reduce their salary, despite the slump in the state government revenues.

The labour unions, comprising Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress, also requested immediate payment of outstanding salaries by the governor to ease the effect of the lockdown on the populace.

Fayemi had last Tuesday announced the slashing of his salaries, that of his Deputy, Bisi Egbeyemi, and political appointees by 50 percent.

The made this agitation at a press conference jointly addressed by the Chairmen of NLC, Kolapo Olatunde, and his counterpart in TUC, Sola Adigun, in Ado Ekiti prior to Workers' Day.

 

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  palliatives.

"We are still being owed three months’  salary arrears,  outstanding leave bonuses and 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  the government to think of  pay cut in the state," he stated.

Olatunde appreciated the state government and health workers in the 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, Adigun, said what the workers receive in Nigeria was never  a living wage, expressing optimism that they will breathe a sigh of relief soon.