Borno workers threaten strike over N20b gratuities, others

Workers in Borno State have threatened to embark on strike over government’s non-payment of their N20 billion gratuities.

Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Titus Ali Abana, pledged to lead the strike, if government fails to pay the backlogs.

He said that it was in 2013 that the state government last paid gratuities to its workers.

Announcing the planned action yesterday at a news conference in Maiduguri, he said: “The Borno State government has not been paying workers’ leave grants and other promotion benefits.

“We also want government to restore the monthly installment of gratuities, which is about N150 million,” even as more workers are retiring from service.

According to him, Governor Kashim Shettima had tired the union of repeated promises for the payments.

“We have severally written to the government and even had face-to-face meetings with the governor and the Head of Service.

“All measures have not yielded any positive result for our retired workers, many of who are dying of heartbreaks,” he said.

Abana lamented that nothing has come out of the several negotiations with government.

He cited other challenges to include arrears of salaries from the N18, 000 workers’ minimum wage, including undue reductions and omission of workers’ pay records during the biometric capturing exercise.