Kogi govt., NLC in fresh row over salary arrears, screening

The Kogi State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that the state workforce would not participate in a fresh screening as ordered by the government.
The state chairman of NLC, Mr Onuh Edoka, made the statement on Thursday in Lokoja while addressing a press conference.
He gave the government up till February 10 to pay the September 2015 salaries of workers or face industrial action.
Edoka accused the government of insincerity in its dealing with workers.
He said that the issue of fresh screening of workers before payment of their September salaries did not come up for discussion during the February 2 meeting it held with representatives of government.
“We are shocked and surprised that Kogi State government can back-stab workers. We agreed on the payment of one month salary out of four months being owed us out of honour and respect for the governor.
“The issue of staff screening was not discussed. Workers have been down for four months; to subject them to any screening now will compound their hardship, “Edoka said.
He said that though labour was not opposed to government’s effort to identify ghost workers and curb corruption, it should provide relief to the workers by paying them their one month salary as agreed with the NLC.
He said that pensioners in the state would not participate in the screening scheduled to commence on February 8, on the ground that they were too weak to stand the rigours of the exercise.
Edoka warned that organised labour would tolerate obnoxious and anti-workers’ actions from the government and advised Governor Yahaya Bello to be wary of bad advice from certain quarters.