2nd May, 2024
By Joy Mbachi
Mr Chris Ogbonna, Chairman, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Anambra Council, has appealed to Gov. Charles Soludo, to re-introduce the suspended wage award and retain same till a new minimum wage is reached.
According to him, workers are facing excruciating hardship and hunger, hence the need for the re-introduction of the wage award to ameliorate the pain and hardship workers are passing through.
Ogbonna made the request in an interview on Thursday in Okoh, Orumba South Local Government Area, Anambra.
He said the organised labour, in their 2023 discussions with Federal Government, agreed on the wage award to cushion the hardship experienced by workers as a result of fuel subsidy removal till a new minimum wage is agreed upon and implemented.
“Anambra government agreed to pay N12,000 to workers and pensioners in the state, this wage award only lasted from September to December 2023.
“Workers and pensioners in the state are in arrears of four months, we are the only state in the Southeast not receiving the wage award.
“Other states in the same zone like Ebonyi is still getting N10,000, Enugu N25,000, Imo 35,000.
“Our governor is a member of the Federal Government minimum wage committee and is aware that conclusion is yet to be achieved and wondered why the wage award was stopped,” he said.
Ogbonna said that both the state and the Federal Governments need to hasten the process of workers’ salary adjustment before everyone involved perishes.
He also called on governments to ensure that the cost of essential commodities are reduced to the level that Nigerian workers can breath and live.
“Fuel is sold between N740 and N900, government should put price regulations and see to its enforcement.
“Workers are dying emotionally and physically on daily basis and they have nothing to bequeath their children after 35 years of service,” he said.
Ogbonna appealed to the state government to build a Labour House in the state as the organised labour desired a secretariat and event centre that would accommodate the services and needs of affiliate unions.
He said that other states including Imo, Abia, Delta, Rivers, amongst others, had their own secretariats adding that they would be eternally grateful if the governor grants this their age-long request.
Ogbonna commended the state government on its efforts to provide good governance for people of the state and urged it to see workers as key players in development of the state.