The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Kaduna State says Governor Nasir El-Rufai is mobilising thugs to disrupt the union’s five-day warning strike.
Chairman of the union, Ayuba Suleiman, stated this in a Sunday statement.
He also denied the state government’s allegation that the union was mobilising thugs, saying, “it is not in the character of Labour to indulge in such uncivilised manner”.
He added that only politicians use thugs to advance their cause.
“We are calling the attention of the general public to the alleged planned mobilisation of thugs by the state government to discredit our peaceful protest of tomorrow.
“Hence, we advocate that the people of Kaduna state should be vigilant and stand against this plan,” Suleiman said.
He said that El-Rufai deceived the union into commending him for being the first state governor to begin the implementation of the new N30,000 minimum wage.
“Earlier, we were misled to commend the State Government for being the first state to implement N30, 000 minimum wage to both civil servants and the retirees.
“But however, we noted with dismay that the government reverted to the old minimum wage of N18,000 in April,” the NLC statement further read.
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According to Suleiman, the state government paid 20,000 state civil servants half salary in April.
Stating that this was less than the N18,000 previous minimum wage, the NLC chairman noted that the state government denied health workers almost all allowances such as hazard, call duty, shifting and rural posting.
The NLC further said that the Kaduna state government has failed to pay the retirement benefits of 80 per cent of the 35, 000 civil servants it disengaged in 2017.
“It’s sad for Kaduna State Government to claim its commitment to training of workers while those that are qualified for promotion remain stagnate for years.
“On claims by the government of supporting civil servants to pay for houses through mortgages on a single digits interest, this claim is false.
“The reality of this was that this mortgages was gotten by the joint effort of NLC and TUC.
“The State Government in its ignorance failed to realize the obvious fact that payments of salaries have multiplyeing effects on the social welfare and economy.
“In other words, when salaries are paid it reflect down the line.”
The NLC stressed that its gross with government was that the disengagement of workers was not done in accordance with the law.
It said that over over 50,000 workers were sacked by the state government from 2017 to date.
These include over 21,000 teachers, 5,000 Local Government workers, 12,000 State civil servants and the recent sacking of over 7, 000 workers of local governments in April.
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