The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has tackled the Abia State governor, Alex Otti, over a purported verification exercise that has left many workers unpaid for over seven months.
The NLC in a circular obtained by SaharaReporters on Sunday and signed by Okoro Ogbonnaya, state chairman, and Emma Alozie, the state secretary, asked the civil and public servants to discountenance another directive from the government to go online and upload their documents with effect from May 10 2024 to May 31 2024.
The NLC said, “The State Council of Congress wonders on what happened to the first verification exercise in the State in which many workers are yet to be verified and their salaries withheld by government for over 7 months now.
“The State Executive Council (SEC) of the Congress rising from Its emergency meeting today Saturday, 11 May, 2024, after a critical review of the said Goverment Public Service Announcement resolved as follows:
“1. That it is a slight for government to again organise such a sensitive programme for our members without recourse to Labour which is the umbrella body for the workers.
“2. That Labour views this exercise as retrogressive to earlier vision of the governor to fish out ghost workers from the system.
“3. That another verification exercise few months after the first one is anti-workers, considering the economic hardship the workers are going through with their meager salaries.
“4.That asking them to go on-line is another financial burden to the workers faced with various financial challenges.
” 5. That the government should as a matter of urgency put the exercise on hold to avoid industrial crisis in the State.
“Therefore, the SEC-in session finally resolved that no Abia worker in the MDAs and the 17 Local Government Areas should henceforth present his or herself for any form of on-line verification pending when this Issue would be discussed between Labour and Government.”
