By Priscilla Campbell,
Minna
Local Government workers in Niger State have rejected the deduction of 20 per cent of their March 2020 salaries to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter by by the Secretary of the Joint Union, Comrade Kabiru Yakubu dated March 31, 2020, the workers’ warned that no branch chairman or his representative should enter into any agreement with any local government council for the partial payment of March 2020 salaries.
The unions include the Medical and Health Workers Union, the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employers (NULGE), the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Niger State and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) Niger State.
The decision to forfeit 20 per cent of their salaries was taken earlier at a meeting that included the 25 local government chairmen, officials of the National Union of Local Government Employees, as well as the Nigeria Union of Teachers and the Medical and Allied Workers Union.
The chairmen had accepted that the workers be paid 80 percent of their salaries for march, while 20 percent should be kept aside to provide some palliatives to the vulnerable persons in their areas to help cushion the effect of the stay-at-home and to address possible spread of the pandemic.
Confirming the development, the state Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), who is also the chairman of Chanchaga Local Government Area, Mallam Ibrahim Abubakar Bosso, hinged the decision to the shortfall witnessed in the total amount accrued to the Lgs for march from the Federal Account.
Ibrahim explained that the decision was not well taken by a across-section of the workers, just as there were persons at the meeting, who were not happy after the decision was taken.
He said, “The state government is already overwhelmed with financial burdens since the outbreak of the COVID-19, and the need for us to look for ways of sourcing for funds to contain the spread and provide palliative for the people informed the decision.
“The meeting agreed that only 80% of salaries should be paid to workers with part of the agreement also being to first pay the 20% before any deduction during the April salaries.”
A source from the Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Ministry revealed that the amount that was accrued to the 25 councils from the Federation Account in Abuja for March 2020 stood at N3.6 billion whereas the total salary bills was N3.4 billion.
The source also explained that after the statutory deductions that include union dues, five percent emirate deduction, security votes and monthly overhead for the chairmen, “what is left is less than N3 billion and this can not pay 100 percent salaries of the over 3,000 workers at the local government.” It was gathered that the workers were irked by the refusal of the 25 chairmen to forfeit their overhead cost that was between N10 million to N15 million aside their security vote for the month of March that was largely responsible for the payment of the 80 percent salaries.
