Malam Abdullahi Adeka, the Chairman of Nasarawa State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said the leadership of the union has not mortgaged the collective interests of the workers in the state.
Adeka said on Tuesday in Lafia that the leadership of the union had struggled to ensure government pay workers in full instead of the percentage payment proposed by government.
The workers in the state had accused the union leadership of not presenting their position to a committee set up after the July to August 2016 industrial action over system of salary payment.
Adeka explained that the resistance of the union to the salary cut led to the setting up of the tripartite committee after the strike.
He said the committee comprises representatives of the state government, the organised labour and the Federal Ministry of Labour.
Adeka said that the agreements reached with the committee were part of decisions taken at the union’s enlarged meeting in the state.
“We have agreed that instead of collecting salaries in percentage because the allocation is not enough to pay salaries, it is better to leave it until it is enough to pay 100 per cent.
“Instead of taking half salary, let’s leave the government with that money until the end of another month if the accruals are enough to pay 100 per cent of the previous month.
“Instead of having arrears of half salary every month that nobody knows when it would be paid, it is better to have arrears of a complete month. It gives room for better understanding.
“Since the allocation is not enough to pay us 100 per cent, we decided to leave them with the money and we are not collecting anything short of 100 per cent,” Adeka added.
He called on workers to remain calm and assured them of the union’s determination to bargain better working condition for them.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tripartite committee had recommended that the government should pay the salaries of workers for the two months they were on strike.
The government only paid the workers July salary arrears. (NAN)