Lagos emergency workers protest unpaid salary, bad working conditions

Workers in the employ of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) Response Unit(LRU) Friday stormed the state’s secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja to protest bad working condition and five months unpaid salary.

“The situation right now is that we have come here to demand our five-month salary that has not yet been paid,” LRU worker said.

“To our surprise this morning also we read in the news today that DG LASEMA said that Lasema is not owing anybody and the operation is running smooth and fine which is complete lie.”

The LRU is a unit created from LASEMA. Its operations were however contracted to a firm, Avantgarde Management Services (AMS), by former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

Avantgarde, under a public-private-partnership agreement with the government, then provided personnel for emergency operations.

An LRU worker, who spoke to The Guardian in anonymity, said they were told that the government was no longer remitting monies for their salaries when they visited AMS to demand why their salaries were delayed.

The emergency worker said AMS representatives told them that non-remittance of their salaries caused reduction of salaries by fifteen percent.

But despite the reduction of salary for over five months, he said they are yet to be paid.

He said some of his colleagues were laid off and had their health insurance canceled before the salary reduction.

The workers opined that governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is aware of their plight.

The emergency worker said the governor promised to visit their head office and attend to their needs but he is yet to