Jethro Ibileke/Benin
Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NlC), has for the second time in two weeks, threatened to call out workers on strike if the state government and local councils failed to pay the outstanding salaries owed local government workers.
The labour union which gave a two-week ultimatum when thousands of aggrieved Local Government employees marched to the union’s secretariat along James Watts Street, off Mission Road in Benin, lamented that the aggrieved workers who have been on a month-long protest over the non-payment of their salaries by 14 out of the 18 local goverment councils in the state, were being owed between one and 10 months salaries.
The State Chairman of the NLC, Emmanuel Ademokun, who addressed the protesting local government workers, explained that the labour union would join the NULGE in a sympathy strike that may affect all government activities in the state.
“It (strike) is going to be categorised. Those being owed will go on an indefinite action while the other workers will go on a sympathy strike. But that will be when the chairmen of the 18 NULGE unions confirm it next week. Our national body is also in support of it”, he said.
Ademokun described as unacceptable the excuse that the inability of the defaulting councils to pay was due to dwindling allocations, pointing out that some of the councils became indebted since 2014.
While noting that the issue was not about the Edo state government but the council chairmen and secretaries, Ademokun however urged the state government to bail out the councils.
“The state government will need to bail them out because they are all of the same political party. Revenue allocations fell last within two or three months but some councils started owing since last year. If a chairman cannot pay salaries for nine months, that chairman should be removed,” he said.
The protesting workers also visited the State House of Assembly complex, where the Speaker, Victor Edoror, assured them that the House would invite the council chairmen to explain why they had failed to fulfil their financial obligations