Rivers workers flout Labour’s strike directive, resume duties

Workers in Rivers State have flouted the sit-at-home order of the organised labour by resuming work at their respective ministries, departments and agencies.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state had on Monday directed their members to state at home in the expression of their anger for the alleged non-implementation of the new minimum wage by the Governor Nyesom Wike administration.

Both parties had been at loggerheads over the execution of the N30,000 pay for workers.

The state government had in January this year claimed that it had paid the workers the new minimum wage, but the state chairperson of the NLC, Comrade Beatrice Itubuo, described the payment as “funny”, stating that the government only “paid what it liked and not the approved new wage.”

She claimed that some workers only received additional emoluments of N15,000 and 10,000 while others never got.

Itubuo, however, called for a meeting with the state government to resume talks on the ‘unsavoury development’.

But two days later, the labour headquarters in Port Harcourt was sealed by government, saying the complex was shut to allow for structural integrity test and fixing of some defects in the building.

The NLC boss nevertheless insisted that the complex was sealed because of the union’s position on the “full implementation of the new wage.”