National leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress, or NLC, have announced that organized labor and its allies will shut down Abia State starting on Monday, January 27, due to a number of unresolved issues, including the failure to implement the N30,000 national minimum wage five years after President Muhammad Buhari signed it into law.

Additionally, the NLC is irate over over 30 months’ worth of wage and pension arrears owed to other state employees as well as at least six months’ worth of salary and pension arrears owed to core civil servants.

According to NLC President Joe Ajaero, “all mobilization for the beginning of the action has been done. In fact, we would have begun the industrial action sooner if it weren’t for the fact that we don’t want anything to interfere with this weekend’s elections.

”We have given the directive for Monday. We are all going to be on the ground. We are going to dance in the state. There is no going back. We have given the government enough time to address our grievances to no avail.”

At the inaugural meeting of the newly elected National Administrative Council, NAC, of NLC, led by Ajaero, on February 20, 2023, at the Pascal Bafyau Labour House, Abuja, leaders of NAC in a communiqué, recalled: “Furtherance to the decision of the National Executive Council, NEC, to take all lawfully necessary actions to compel Abia State government to pay the over six months salary arrears/allowances of workers and unpaid pension benefits, NAC resolved to direct all the affiliate unions to commence mobilisation for the action in Abia State at the end of the 14-day ultimatum given to the government which ends on Friday, February 24, 2023.”

Recall that on February 13, NLC wrote to the stage government issuing a 14-day ultimatum to resolve pending industrial issues or face unrest.

The February 13, 2023,letter was a follow-up of earlier letters by NLC, dated November 1, 2022, and December 23, 2022, on the persistent failure of Abia State government to offset arrears of workers’ salaries and pensioners’ retirement benefits and also stop alleged victimisation of workers and trade unions in Abia State.

Among some of the grievances of NLC against Abia government, besides the infraction of non-implementation of N30,000 national minimum wage since 2019, are unpaid pensions between August and December 2014 (five months), unpaid pensions between January and April 2015 (four months), unpaid pension between January and December 2018 (12 months), unpaid pension between January and November 2019 (11 months), unpaid pension between February and December 2022 (four months), arrears of unpaid gratuity between 2001and 2022 (21years), non-implementation of harmonized percentage increases in pension benefits and non-implementation of minimum pension.

Organized Labour is also quarrelling with three months’ unpaid salary arrears to local government employees, 23 months’ unpaid salary arrears to staff of Abia State University Teaching Hospital, ABSUTH, 11 months of unpaid salary arrears to the Health Management Board, HMB, 11 months unpaid salary arrears of secondary school teachers, three months unpaid salary arrears of primary school teachers,

Others include 30 months unpaid pension benefits of pensioners in Abia State judiciary sector, 30 months unpaid salary arrears of workers in Abia State Polytechnic, 29 months unpaid salary arrears of workers in Abia State College of Education, five months unpaid salary arrears to workers in Abia State College of Health Sciences and the approved CONHESS is yet to be implemented in Abia State since May 2021 till date.

Labour also noted that the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, withdrew the accreditation of Abia State Polytechnic.

The NLC ultimatum added: “If these industrial infractions against workers are not addressed and redressed in the next 14 days, we will have no option than to mobilise workers all over Nigeria to stage the mother of all protest in Abia State.’ CONTINUE READING……………………………

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