Labour Leaders To Storm Imo Again Over Sack Of Workers

EZE EGEJURU

The national leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC is to storm Owerri, Imo State again the recent sack of workers in the State.

The Labour leaders had visited Owerri, last week where they told Governor Okorocha in clear terms that he should resign if he cannot cope in paying workers salaries.

During his first visit to the State, Waheeb Ayuba, the NLC president who led a powerful delegation of the NLC, Trade Union Congress (TUC) to Owerri told had Imo workers  that plans by the State government to sack some of them was not realistic.

 He said the State government has no right to sack any worker, stating that it is regrettable that the State has fractured relationship with workers in the State.

He went ahead to say that he is not convinced that the N26 billion naira bailout funds approved for the State to offset the backlog of workers’ salaries in Imo State was effectively put to use by the State government.

Governor Okorocha was reported to have told the labour leaders that Imo workers act like members of the opposition.

Despite the NLC protestations, the State government at the weekend announced the sack of workers in 19 parastatals and agencies.

A statement from the office of the Secretary to the Government of Imo State (SGI) said it decided to sack the workers after conducting what it termed “productivity test”

Local newspapers however quoted an unnamed source saying that the State government has issued marching orders to sack another set of workers in the Ministries.

INNONEWS.COM was also informed that the government intends to retain only 150 workers in each of the ministries.

Justifying the sack of workers on Tuesday, the Special Adviser to Governor Okorocha on Information And Strategy, Kelechi Okpaleke said that the falling monthly revenue from the Federation Account is one of the key factors responsible to the sack of some workers.

  

He revealed  that last month Imo State received a meager N1.4 billion naira as allocation and the  State government cannot cope with the monthly N4.2 billion naira wage bill of Imo workers, stressing that based on the current economic downturn in the country, the state government had no option than to suspend some unproductive workers.