The Kogi state chapter of the
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared that the state workforce would not
participate in the fresh screening as ordered by the government.
In a statement issued by the state chairman of NLC, Mr
Onuh Edoka, on Thursday, February 4, in Lokoja, the state capital, the
government was given up till Feb. 10 to pay the Sept. 2015 salaries of workers
or face industrial action.
Mr. Edoka, who faulted the government of insincerity
in its dealing with workers, stated that the issue of fresh screening of
workers before payment of their September salaries did not come up for
discussion during the Feb. 2 meeting it held with representatives of
government.
He said: “We are shocked and surprised that Kogi State
government can back stab workers.
“We agreed on the payment of one
month salary out of four months being owed us out of honour and respect for the
governor.
“The issue of staff screening was
not discussed.
“Workers have been down for four
months; to subject them to any screening now will compound their hardship.“
Mr. Edoka said that though labour was not opposed to
government’s effort to identify ghost workers and curb corruption, it should
provide relief to the workers by paying them their one monthly salary as agreed
with the NLC.
Edoka warned that organised labour would not tolerate
obnoxious and anti-workers actions from the government and advised Gov. Yahaya
Bello to be wary of bad advice from certain quarters.
Meanwhile, there are indications that the NLC may have
started consultations with its civil society ally, Trade Union Congress (TUC)
to protest the adoption of price modulation for petrol prices in the country.
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