Verification: Workers are suffering – NLC tells Abia govt

 The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, has expressed disappointment with the slow pace of the workers’ verification exercise being conducted by the Abia State Government.

The position of the union was made on Thursday in a press release signed by the Abia NLC Chairman, Nweke Paschal and Emma Alozie, the Secretary, after its State Executive Council meeting.

While supporting the verification exercise and the welfare package by Governor Alex Otti, the NLC faulted the manner civil servants were allegedly being subjected to inhumane treatment during the ongoing verification.

According to the press release,

“We are pained by the plight of Abia workers in their efforts to be verified. We therefore state that a situation where up to six MDAs that have not less than 400 to 700 workers are invited for verification on a day is unacceptable to Labour.

“A situation where workers are subjected to in-human conditions is unacceptable to Labour. A situation where workers are forced to report for verification for days without being captured under this hard condition occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy without palliative from the State government is unacceptable to Labour.

“We are saddened by the fact that most workers are yet to receive their salaries under the excuse of having not been captured as a result of glitches which are not their own fault.

“For fairness and justice sake, we call on the executive governor, His Excellency, Alex Chioma, Otti as a matter of urgency, to approve payment of the salaries of those affected, to ameliorate their sufferings. This is from the background that they remain Abia workers until proved otherwise through verification exercise.”

The NLC demanded that no civil servant in the State should be victimized during the verification, adding that the contractor handling the verification exercise should not be allowed to dictate the duration period of the exercise.

Apart from these, the organized labour called for restoration of light in the International Conference Centre venue of the ongoing verification, to ensure a ventilated and conducive conditions for the workers, even as it demanded that the closing date for the verification be extended to allow all workers to be captured.

The Special Adviser on media and publicity to Governor Alex Otti, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma did not respond to messages sent to him for a reaction.