Organised? labour in Anambra State yesterday declared an indefinite strike to reject what they called “Obi Wage”. This was just as the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, said that only the minimum wage passed by an Act of the National Assembly was acceptable to the workers in the state.
To drive home their point, the workers? also called on the people of the state to put on hold? the payment of taxes to the state government until the issue was resolved.
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They argued that the? government could not be collecting taxes from citizens and refuse to pay the new minimum wage even when it has been signed into law.
The State chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress Comrade Patrick Obianyo while addressing members of the union after a rally which took over 5,000 workers round the streets of Awka? said that they did not believe that the state government would? pay the N18,000 minimum wage.
“We believe that government is capable of paying the minimum wage, and can even pay N20,000. So, because of what we see as government’s insensitivity, we have decided to go on an indefinite strike because strike is the only language government understands in Nigeria, including Peter Obi’s government.” Obianyo said.
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He told workers in the state at the Aroma Junction, venue of the rally, that leaders of the organised labour in the state have been trying their best to reason with the government to see how the minimum wage issue could be resolved, but government and their negotiators have chosen to show insensitivity to their plight.
?“When we first declared a warning strike, rejecting the chart presented to us by the state government, members of the Anambra Elders Advisory Council called us, and asked that we present our own chart to them so that both could be harmonised. We presented the chart, but we never heard anything from government again.
?“Not long ago, we were called and told that government intends to add N15,000 to the salaries of workers in the state as minimum wage, latter they said it will be N10,000. Now most of our members have received their salaries and guess what, they added N2,000 and N3,000 and some N5,000. That is not minimum wage.”
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Labour leadership in the state told workers to regard whatever they were paid by government as bonus for the new yam festival or for the 20th anniversary celebration of the state.
Reeling statistics to support his belief that government could? pay minimum wage, Obianyo told workers that they were thankful to the Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala who decided to publish the allocation to states. “Anambra receives an average of N3.8billion monthly. From January to August, Governor Peter Obi has received nothing less than N30billion, whereas the monthly pay of the state workforce stands at N600million.
“ This means that from January to August, only N6billion of the total money has been spent on salaries. So where did our N24billion go?” Obianyo asked rhetorically.
Speaking further, the labour leaders? said, “when Obi came from abroad in 2003 to canvass for our votes, he told us that his driver earns N50,000 with accommodation, we did not know that he was merely deceiving us. Masons and other labourers get N1,500 as daily pay, but workers in Anambra state are asking for N600 daily, yet we are being denied that.”
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