Civil Servants in Plateau State have embarked on a 5-day Sit-At-Home warning strike commencing 12 midnight Sunday 11 December 2022 following government’s inability to meet their demands of nonpayment of 3 months salaries and non-release of third-party deductions among others.
Addressing journalists at the conference hall of the State Labour House in Jos, the state capital Monday, the Chairman of Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), Comrade Titus L. Malau, said it was as a result of failure of government to meet their agreement.
He said, “this became imperative in view of the fact that Government reneged in fulfilling our demands and particularly, the agreement reached on November 11, 2022, with the intervention of the Secretary to the Government of the State (SGS).
“The demands of the JNPSNC are as follows: Nonpayment of salaries for 3 months from September 2022 to date; lack of release of salary structure to guide salary computation; non-release of third-party deduction from August 2022 to date and non-release of promotion and annual increment with its arrears in full respectively.
“Others include Nonpayment of January and February 2022 annual increment arrears; Inability of government to properly constitute and inaugurate the Joint National Service Negotiating Council in the state among others”, Malau highlighted.
However, the Joint Council also frowned and faulted the White Paper Report of the high-powered Staff Audit Committee headed by Nde John Gobak, for failing to upgrade staff who were due for promotions and unduly stagnated, placing it as one of their demands accordingly.
They equally disagreed with disciplinary measures meted on the victims of this audit report without a corresponding discipline on the authorities that falsely promoted the victims. They added that, “the Unions demand that staff due for upgrading must be equally upgraded for a fair report”.
On his part, the Plateau State Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Eugene Manji, said, “We expected them to have fulfilled the agreement on or before November 14, 2022, and August salary was supposed to be paid in full and September/October salaries also were to be paid on or before the end of November, but here we are in December.
“Automatically, of all we have discussed and agreed on, nothing has been done. That goes to say that they disrespected our agreement since even the August salary dropped in half. So, we can start counting from August, September, October, November and ideally, we are equally qualified for December salary by now”, he disclosed.
Also, the Vice Chairman of Trade Union Council (TUC), Chundung Alamba said, “Government earlier promised to pay salaries as at when due and it has been tryin, but recently, it is trying to go the other way round and as a matter fact, our members are suffering and are not happy, hence the need for government to keep their promise to the letter”.
