Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Jigawa State has rejected the alleged removal of over 7,800 workers from payroll.
The state NLC chairman Comrade Sanusi Alhassan Maigatari declared the worker’s position in a speech at the celebration of International Workers’ Day on Wednesday at the Aminu Kano Triangle, Dutse.
He accused the consultant handling the migration exercise of the state and local government workers into Integrated Personnel Payroll Management System (IPPMS) of labelling the affected civil servants as ghost workers.
Alhassan said the consultant appeared to be incompetent to handle such a critical assignment, stressing that instead of addressing the main issues, it created confusion and threw workers and their families into untold hardship.
He said NLC is not against the state government or any other employer of labour to conduct periodic audits on their workforce but the company that is handling such assignments for Jigawa State government appeared to be grossly incompetent in handling such crucial exercise.
“The consultant has subjected workers into various degrees of hardship, many people suffered physical injuries as they rush for ill-organized data capturing, many were forced to sleep in an open space, while salary and allowances of thousands of workers were cut for no reason other than incompetency.
“As we are standing here for the 2024 International Workers Day, thousands of our workers did not receive their April salary, this is unacceptable and we will resist it in totality.
“We hope the government and the consultant will address the challenges raised by workers,” Sanusi stated.
However, Alhassan reminded the state government about the dearth of workers which is negatively affecting public service delivery in the state, including health and education sector.
He called on the government to embark on mass recruitment of staff in all sectors to avoid total collapse of public service.
In his speech Governor Umar Namadi said his government regards workers as critical partners in moving the state forward and assured that the IPPMS exercise was not introduced to victimise workers but to promote efficiency.
The governor who was represented by his deputy Engr Aminu Usman reiterated the commitment of the government to ensure timely payment of workers’ salary and other entitlements.
