Niger state government has said that the strike by organised labour in the state was taking a toll on socio-economic activities.
Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Minna.
“Civil servants as the implementers of government policies and programmes are very important. Whenever their services are needed and they are not there, definitely there is no way the system will work well.
“All sectors of government have been affected in one way or another, thereby stalling activities,” he said.
Idris appealed to the organised labour to embrace dialogue being initiated by government in order to find a way forward.
“In the interest of the state, government is doing everything possible to negotiate with the organised labour to enable workers return to work,” he said.
He said that though the organised labour was demanding for workers legitimate right, government was faced by recession as a result of the negative impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
NAN observed that no government department or public office were seen opened since the industrial action embarked upon by the state chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) started on Dec. 1st as all civil servants stayed at home.
NAN recalls that the organised labour is demanding that the 30 per cent differed balance of June salaries of workers be paid.
That November salaries of workers must be paid 100 per cent and the 80 civil servants dismissed by the government must be re-absolved into service.
Mr. Yakubu Garba, the state NLC Chairman had told NAN that negotiations between government and organised labour had not been concluded before government started the pay cut.
Garba said that while some workers received 30 per cent less of their original salaries others got 35 per cent.
NAN gathered from authoritative sources that another meeting had been slated with government at 2 p.m. on Sunday. (NAN)
