Civil servants in Plateau State have embarked on a five-day warning strike, beginning 12:00 a.m., yesterday, following government’s inability to meet their demand for payment of three months salaries and release of third party deductions, among others.

Addressing journalists at the conference hall of Labour House, in Jos, yesterday, the Chairman of Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), Comrade Titus L. Malau, said the action came as a result of government’s failure to fulfill its agreement.

He explained: “This became imperative, in view of the fact that government reneged in fulfilling our demands and, particularly, the agreement reached on November 11, 2022 through the intervention of Secretary to the Government of the State (SGS).”

He described the issues as: “Non-payment of salaries for three 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 yearly increment with arrears in full.

“Others are: non-payment of January and February 2022 yearly increment arrears; inability of government to properly constitute and inaugurate the Joint National Service Negotiating Council in the state, among others.”

On his part, the Plateau State Chairman of the Nigeria 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 as half. So, we can start counting from August, September, October, November and ideally, we are equally qualified for December salary by now.”