Niger state government has made it known that it can’t afford to pay full salaries to workers due to a decrease in the allocation it receives from Federal Government.
The state government has proposed to pay workers 70% of their salaries and stressed that the reduction was not a slash but the state’s inability to meet 100% salaries. The proposal has been rejected by organized labour of the state.
While talking about the slash in the salaries, the Secretary to the Niger State Government, Ahmed Ibrahim Matane, said: “There is no talk about slash in the salaries of civil servants. What we have discussed with the organized Labor was that because of the recession, our FAAC allocation has dropped to a level where we won’t be able to pay 100 per cent of the salary.
“We called their attention to this, we opened our books in terms of how much we received, the existing commitments and what is left over.”
Also, Matane disclosed that there would be a meeting with Labour leaders soon.
Though Nigeria Labour Congress has not taken a stand, the state chairman of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Inusa Tanimu has made it known that any salary less than 100 per cent would be rejected by the Union.
Tanimu said: “We are meeting tomorrow, we are still talking with them but one thing we have decided is that anything less than 100 per cent is a no to us.”
