BY GRACE IGWEANYI
 |
| Imo Workers During One Of Their Protests |
Following the sack of
some workers in 19 parastatals and agencies, the searchlight of the Imo State
government has moved to the Ministries.
A fresh directive was
said to have been issued to reduce the number of staffers in each of the
ministries to 150.
INNONEWS.COM was told
that those whose appointments were not regularized will be worst hit by the
latest sack wave carried out by the Rochas Okorocha administration recently.
These include workers
who were appointed many years ago but never received confirmation letters. Those termed as casual workers are also said
to be on the firing range of the State government.
When this online newspaper visited the State
Secretariat located along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, workers were seen discussing
the matter in low tones. Most of them
have turned to prayer warriors calling for divine intervention in the situation.
The sack of the workers
is in line with the State government policy to downsize the State workforce
which it says is over-bloated.
A statement by the State Commissioner for
Information, Youth And Sports, Chidi Ibe accused the past PDP administration in
the State for the cause of the oversized workforce that is consuming huge chunk
of the State lean resources.
He defended the recent
sack of workers in the parastatals saying they were only suspended to make way
for the entrance of concessionaries to run the parastatals which were not self
sustaining and non- productive.
According to him, the suspended workers could
reapply in the new arrangement and could be retained.
However, before the
sack of staffers in 19 parastatals last
week, a staff of one of the ministries told this newspaper on condition of
anonymity that all allowances such as
overtime and leave allowances for the workers has since been removed.
He said “The ongoing
sack of workers in Imo State is unacceptable to us. All our benefits were
removed before now. There has been series of audits to fish out ghost workers
in the State workforce yet they are now sacking the workers.
“Is Imo State the only
state in the country that is receiving low revenue from the State workforce?
None of the States in the federation has sacked anybody despite the bad economy
in the country and drop in revenue.
“Imo State does not
have the largest workforce in the country. The State received N26 billion naria
from the bail- out funds to settle workers salaries yet we are told that there
is no money to pay workers.
“What about States that
did not receive the bail out. Have we heard of their workers sacked by the
State government” he queried.
The long drawn battle
between the State government and workers had attracted the national leadership
of the Nigeria Labour Congress to Owerri.
They reportedly told
the Imo governor to resign if he cannot pay workers salaries.
The State government on its part has insisted that it must suspend unproductive workers because its monthly allocation from the federation account cannot carry the N4.2 billion aria monthly wage bill of an over-bloated workforce in the State.
No comments:
Write comments