By Peter Uzoma
Despite a counter reaction from the Imo State Government challenging the decision of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to vent its anger again on the state government over alleged anti workers’ policies, fresh arrangements by the Labour Unions to ground Owerri, the Imo State capital, next Tuesday, have commenced.
The national body of the labour had early this week signaled intention to hand the Owelle Rochas Okorocha led government, another bitter pill of its struggle against anti workers policy.
Owerri sometime in February this year was shut when all NLC leaders drawn from the States invaded Imo to protest Okorocha’s mass sack of workers in the State parastatals. The siege by the union leaders and civil servants forced an earlier unshaken governor to cave in and rescind the mass sack order.
Six months after, the NLC are returning to Imo, this time to protest what it termed anti-workers policy even as the State government through the Governor’s spokesman, Sam Onwuemedo, has questioned the rationale of the coming workers’ action.
Okorocha had few weeks ago declared Thursdays and Fridays work-free days to enable workers in the State embark on the farm project of the “Back To Land Agricultural Policy” thereby observing only three days working period of Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The policy did not go down well with the leadership of the workforce who not only alerted the national body but also declared it as an obnoxious tactics to further demean the welfare of the civil servants in the State. According to the leadership, it is an unknown policy in the history of labour as International Labour Organization, ILO, has ample minimum and maximum hours for work which is in contrast to the position of the Governor. The workers also suspect that it is part of the subterranean means of the state government to further slash the salaries of workers in the midst of unpaid salaries and pensions.
The labour therefore decided to carry out a protest on Tuesday, August 23, 2016 against Imo and another State in the North Central Zone of Nigeria, Nassarawa. The leadership of NLC, according to reports, would carry out the protest to identity with Imo workers over what NLC described as “abuse of public service process by the Imo state government”.
But the State government while querying the essence of the action denied ever abusing public service process as alleged by the NLC leadership.
According to the State government in the statement; “The only problem the Labour Union in Imo has with the state government is that the leaders of the Congress have taken delight in blackmailing the Rochas-led administration for reasons we have always hesitated to talk about. And they also have the feeling that the only way to impress the workers is by opposing every policy of the state government not minding the popularity of such policy.
“In February 2016, the same Labour leaders in the state brought the entire National leadership of the Congress led by Comrade Wabba to the state also for a protest over one month salary owed to workers and the suspension of certain categories of workers in the parastatals for the purpose of repositioning them for productivity.
“The outcome of that protest was the joint agreement between government and the labour leaders including the National ones, with Comrade Wabba also being a signatory. And the crux of that agreement was that “government will retain and run all its affairs with not more than 30% of the verified revenue every month, while the joint committee will apply the balance of 70% in the settlement of salaries of public servants and pensioners”.
“The state government has been religious over the implementation of this agreement. And has also paid civil servants’ salaries upto the month of July. In other words, Imo State government does not owe the civil servants in the state any outstanding salary at the moment.
“Again, the Back to Land for Agriculture policy of the government, for which the State Executive Council decided that public servants in the state except those on essential duties would work from Monday to Wednesday in their respective offices and farm on Thursday and Friday of every week is a popular one, because the policy is in the overall interest of the state and the workers in particular.
“The government has also assured that the salaries of workers would continue to be paid accordingly. Ditto, their leave and annual allowances. The government did not ask the workers to go home and relax, but to go and farm for the two days to assist to a large extent, the economies of their individual families. Yet, the NLC in the State gave counter directive without looking at the prospect of the policy. NLC is not an opposition political party.
“The issues of land and fund have also been raised in some quarters. And the government said it is going to give agric loan to the public servants who engage in farming. And on the issue of land, any Imo man or woman who gives land as excuse is insincere. Aside personal lands, the lands in Ohaji/Egbema, Oguta, Ngor Okpala, Ideato and other areas in the state can take care of the whole of South-East states. And they can also be accessed in less than an hour from any part of the state. We expect the labour leadership to now talk with the government on how to go about this.
“Let the Comrade Wabba-led Congress publish the claimed “abuse of public service process by the Imo State Government” for Nigerians to see. Otherwise, we will view the planned August 23, 2016 protest against the state government as mere blackmail and posterity will hold it against the organizers”, it added.
