Labour Urges Govt To End Insecurity, Clear Workers’ Salary Arrears

The Organised Labour in Cross River State has called on state and federal governments to take urgent steps to address insecurity, unpaid entitlements and stalled promotions.

The call came during the 2026 Workers Day celebration held on Friday at the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar, where Governor Bassey Otu also outlined his administration’s ongoing interventions for civil servants.

Speaking at the event, the NLC state chairman, Comrade Olayi Gregory, urged workers to use the day not only for celebration but sober reflection.

“Today, we gather not merely in celebration, but in sober reflection,” he said, describing Workers Day as a time “when the dignity of labour is recognised and interrogated.”

He stressed that this year’s observance was “written in sweat, anxiety, and shrinking hopes of the average Cross River worker.”

On security, Olayi said, “No economy can scale sustainably when insecurity has become ambient.”

He noted that workers now face threats “from highways to their communities, from workplaces to farmlands”, stressing that a worker living in fear cannot produce at full capacity.

Decrying the current economic hardship, the NLC chairman said, “Our monthly salaries are helpless against rising cost of living” stressing that “inflation has hollowed out incomes, leaving many workers in a paradox where employment no longer guarantees survival, let alone dignity.”

He disclosed that labour had issued “a final 7-day ultimatum to the government on November 30, 2025” but suspended it “to allow the government a final window to act in good faith.”

Olayi listed 14 unresolved issues affecting workers in the state including “the non-implementation of promotions since 2016” which he said has “left workers stagnated, demoralised and financially shortchanged.”

Other grievances included “non-harmonisation of pensions in line with the new national minimum wage, the failure to pay gratuities to retirees and the distorted implementation of the ₦70,000 national minimum wage,” which he said deviates from the template mutually agreed upon between the government and labour in December 2024.

The union further demanded an end to the “planned breach of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act, 2022,” and called for full consolidation of the “15 per cent salary review for health workers” with basic salary.

“Agreements are not suggestions; they are binding frameworks for trust,” Olayi stated.

“Decent work is not a privilege; it is a right,” he added, cautioning that labour would “explore all legitimate avenues” if the demands remain unresolved.

Responding, Cross River State governor, Bassey Otu, said his administration, anchored on a “people first” mantra, would do everything possible to give workers relief.

“When workers who are the power engine and drive the machinery of government are not happy, success becomes difficult to achieve,” the governor said.

He thanked the workforce for their “dogged determination to sustain industrial harmony,” noting that “in Cross River State, May Day is now a day of reflection, appreciation, and stock-taking of the immeasurable contribution of our workers.”

While highlighting ongoing intervention for civil servants Otu said, “300 civil servants train monthly in ICT capacity building, while 200 civil servants have been trained and certified in health safety and environmental management.”

He added that all government offices have been connected to public power supply and that “50 hectares of land in each of the three senatorial districts have been allocated for a civil servants’ housing scheme, with 1,000 units in South Senatorial district already under construction.”

On welfare, he affirmed that “salary and pension remain a top priority” and announced that “the next set of gratuity payments will be done in a couple of weeks.”

Addressing labour’s concerns, he stated, “My administration implemented a reverse hierarchy structure across the state,” promising to further review the matter of health workers’ retirement age.