Unpaid salaries: Benue workers begin indefi nite strike today

 <h4>  y Daniel Agbo

Makurdi </h4>

Benue state Governor, Samuel Ortom, has assured of his administration’s determination to rid the state civil service of ghost workers and reduce the workers over bloated wage bill from N7.
8 billion to N4 billion.
Th is is even as the workers resolved to commence indefi nite strike today, to express home their grievances over the continued delay in the payment of their monthly salaries.
According to a statement signed by chairmen of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Godwin Anya, the strike would continue until government off sets their salary arrears, which have accumulated for several months.
But governor Ortom, in an interview with newsmen yesterday, explained that the over bloated wage bill of the state was responsible for diffi culty in paying the workers’ monthly salaries, gratuities of pensioners, saying he was determined to address the issue holistically.
Th e governor maintained that the situation had made it mandatory for his government to take drastic measures at sanitising the work force to a level whereby it would be easy to service the wage bill eff ectively.
According to Ortom, all ghost workers would be eliminated from the state government’s payroll, to pave the way for concentration on genuine ones in addition to other proactive actions in line with prevailing economic realities.
Ortom called for sustained prayers to enable his administration succeed, expressing the hope that God would hear every prayer made for him by well meaning people of the state to surmount all challenges before him

 

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