The Abia State Government’s slowness in conducting the workers’ verification exercise has angered the Nigerian Labour Congress, or NLC.
After its State Executive Council meeting on Thursday, the Abia NLC’s Chairman Nweke Paschal and Secretary Emma Alozie issued a press release outlining the union’s position.
The NLC criticized the manner in which civil workers were allegedly exposed to cruel treatment during the ongoing verification while endorsing the verification process and the benefit package proposed by Governor Alex Otti.
The press release reads:
“We are pained by the plight of Abia workers in their efforts to be verified. We therefore state that a situation where up to six MDAs that have not less than 400 to 700 workers are invited for verification on a day is unacceptable to Labour.
“A situation where workers are subjected to in-human conditions is unacceptable to Labour. A situation where workers are forced to report for verification for days without being captured under this hard condition occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy without palliative from the State government is unacceptable to Labour.
“We are saddened by the fact that most workers are yet to receive their salaries under the excuse of having not been captured as a result of glitches which are not their own fault.
“For fairness and justice sake, we call on the executive governor, His Excellency, Alex Chioma, Otti as a matter of urgency, to approve payment of the salaries of those affected, to ameliorate their sufferings. This is from the background that they remain Abia workers until proved otherwise through verification exercise.”