From Noah Ocheni, Lokoja
The Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC) on Tuesday succumbed to pressure as the meeting between Organised Labour and the Kogi State government ended with parties said to have arrived at 80% pay for the month of April.
It will be recalled that the organised labour had earlier insisted that nothing short of full salary for workers would be acceptable in several meetings that ended in a deadlock with the Government team.
The meeting between labour and government was occasioned by the state government’s earlier plan to pay 50 percent salary to state workers, a condition the labour rejected which, however, prompted government to shift ground, pleading to pay seventy five percent as at Monday, 4th April 2020.
At the meeting held in government house, the organized labour led by Comr. Onu Edoka stuck to its guns, insisting that there was no justification for payment of percentage to the Kogi Workers.
The Government’s reasons for the slash in the salary of workers, according to sources was hinged on the state’s inability to draw overdraft to pay salary, a practice that has been on over a period.
The indebtedness over time according to Government sources runs to N4.8 billion a situation that led to the bank swallowing the March 2020 Statutory allocation paid in April two weeks ago.
Owings to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government’s sources said the CBN new guidelines does not permit the granting of huge overdraft, reason why it is difficult for the Bank to give same gesture to the state government as enjoyed in the past.
