Zamfara state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said that the union would embark on a total strike from today following the expiration of a three-week ultimatum given to the state government to address the problems of workers in the state,
NLC, Zamfara chapter chairman, Bashir Mafara, disclosed this yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gusau.
It could be recalled that the NLC had given the state government three weeks ultimatum to address workers’ grievances which include the non-implementation of workers annual increments, promotion and the non-payment of 1, 400 newly recruited staff more than three years ago.
Other issues, according to the NLC are the refusal of the government to implement minimum wage for local government staff and primary school teachers as well as non- payment of pensioners’ gratuities.
The NLC said it was worried that primary school teachers and local government workers in the state were still receiving between N7,500 and N8,000 as monthly salary.
The NLC chairman said that the union has been having consultations with the government officials, led by the Secretary to the State Government, Abdullahi Shinkafi, on how to resolve the issues.
He said that the government had failed to meet up with any of the agreements reached between the workers and the state government.
“Therefore, we are starting the strike tomorrow, Monday as announced three weeks ago.
“We have already announced that all the representatives of the NLC affiliated unions should meet tomorrow at NLC Secretariat by 10.00 am to mark the commencement of the strike”, he said.
Mafara, therefore, urged all workers to stay away from their places of works from tomorrow until the problems were addressed by the government.
Special Adviser to the state governor on Media and Publicity, Ibrahim Dosara, had earlier told journalists that the 21-day ultimatum was uncalled for.
