Borno NLC appeals to government to pay 9,400 workers’ salaries

The Borno state chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has appealed to Governor Kashim Shettima pay the two months’ salaries of workers that were “physically identified and captured” by the workers’ verification and biometric exercise committee.

The payments of salaries, according to NLC chairman, Ali Abana, were inevitable, as workers continue to suffer hardships and traumas from the non-payments of their salaries by the state government.

Addressing a news conference Tuesday at the NLC secretariat complex, Maiduguri, Abana said: “The 9, 400 workers that were “psychically identified and captured” by the committee be paid their July and August salaries.”

He continued: “We are calling on the state government as a matter of
great concern and with the burning issue of insurgency biting on the workers, to pay workers their salaries to ease their sufferings and hardships.

He said that the call has become inevitable; as the Muslim festival; Eid-Kabir draws nearer, adding that workers are experiencing hardship with non-payment of salary.

He appealed to the state government not to use the ongoing verification and bio-metric exercise as alibi for delay in workers’ salaries payments.

He said that government can pay workers who have completed their data
capturing; while the exercise continues.

Abana said: “The workers’ verification exercise should not be used as excuse against workers. We should not be exposed to severe hardship when there are other states where government is paying while verification is ongoing,” noting that the union was not opposed to the biometric exercise but was insisting on payment of salaries to workers who have concluded their verification.

He added: “What the verification committee is doing has received the full support of the Borno NLC and allied unions; but we want the exercise done with care.”

The Head of Service, Yakubu Bukar however insisted that; “No workers
will be paid unless the verification and biometric exercise are completed. Any other workers; that have not been verified remain as
ghost workers.”