Jutha Gupah, Maiduguri
Workers in Borno State have threatened to embark on an industrial action over the non-payments of their N20 billion gratuities by government. Chairman of the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), Titus Ali Abana, will also lead workers; if the state government fails to pay the backlogs of gratuities. He said that the last gratuities payments made by the state government, was in 2013. Announcing the industrial action on Tuesday at a news conference in Maiduguri, he said: “The Borno state government has not been paying workers’ leave grants and their promotional benefits. His words: “Since June 2013, the state government has not been paying workers’ gratuity and this has only created a huge backlog of almost about N20 billion for both the state and the local government. “We also want government to restore the monthly installment payment of gratuity, which is about N150 million, if not even, consider increasing the amount to meet up with the daily increase on the number of persons retiring from the state civil service.” According to him, the labor union had become tired of repeated promises of Governor Kashim Shettima for the payments. Speaking on workers’ negotiations, Abana said: “We have severally written to the government and even had face to face meetings with the governor and the Head of Service. “All measures have not yielded any positive result for our retired workers many of whom are today dying of heartbreak due to non-payment of their benefits. “If the meeting with the governor failed to yield any positive response, the union will embark on a massive industrial action. “We have done our best in trying to follow the government through the diplomatic doors and dialogue; but we are tired of going back to our members and retired workers with empty hands. Should this fail, we have no other alternative than to go on a big worker’s strike action.” Continuing, he added: “There are even other issues of outstanding arrears of workers like the issue of N18, 000 workers minimum wage that is still outstanding, coupled with lots of undue reductions or omission of workers’ pay recorded during the biometric capturing of workers data which has not been rectified till date. Yerima Saleh, the Head of Civil Service (HoS) had last February announced that the state governor had approved N1 billion to offset part of the owed gratuities. According to him, the fund, was in addition to the N2 billion earlier approved for the same purpose in 2017. Efforts to get the head of service to clarify the controversy of payments of gratuities proved difficult as his phones could not be reached. However, Abana yesterday also confirmed that N3 billion was released by government but explained that the funds were only meant to service the gratuity of some top retired civil servants. “Given the amount owed to retirees and the number of people affected, the N3 billion the government is talking about; was like a drop of water in the ocean,” he lamented, adding that it did not even clear the remaining months of June 2013.
