NLC Urges FG, States To Pay Outstanding Salaries

The Nigeria Labour Con
gress (NLC) has urged the federal and state governments to pay all outstanding workers’ salaries and pensioners’ allowances before the handing over date of  May 29, 2015.
A statement by the Congress Secretary-General, Comrade Peter Ozo-Eson, in Abuja on Wednesday said the workers would not take it lightly with any arm of government that refuses to pay the outstanding salaries before handing over.
Ozo-Eson said the congress had directed its state chapters to ensure that no state governor is allowed to leave office without paying the outstanding salaries of the workers.
The NLC said that the negative impact of the falling price of crude oil on the country’s economy and the devaluation of the naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have further made workers monthly take home salary worthless.
The NLC scribe said, Nigerian workers should not be made to bear the brunt of the mismanagement of the nation’s economy as the workers were not among those who mismanaged the nation’s economy.
He said NLC would rise up to protect the workers’, stressing that salaries payment to workers is not a favour, but a constitutional right of the worker to be paid his or her salaries at the end of every month.
The NLC bemoaned the spending culture of some state governors that claimed they don’t have money to pay salaries, stressing that during the last general elections, some governors spent a lot of money, even in hard currency, the congress insisting that they, must pay the all the salaries arrears.
The NLC further explained that it would never support any state government that is not paying salaries, stressing that the fight to get such state pay salaries has started and such state should pay what they owe before they leave.

Philip Okparaji