24th August, 2011
Civil Servants in Enugu on Tuesday resumed work after 12 days of strike to demand for the implementation of the new minimum wage by Governor Sullivan Chime.
When the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) visited the state secretariat on Tuesday, workers were at their duty posts in all the ministries.
Ministries monitored include those of information, lands, works, transport, gender affairs, the Office of the Head of Service, ESUBEB, House of Assembly and the Accountant-General’s office.
The secretariat, which had been desolate in the past 12 days, witnessed a bee-hive of activities as people who had transactions rushed to accomplish them.
While some of the workers were in their offices, some others were outside discussing the development.
Some of them who preferred anonymity told NAN that they were disgusted with the excuses given by the South-East governors not to pay their workers.
“It will be very bad if on the expiration of these two weeks ultimatum, Chime still insists that he cannot pay.
“If he is joking with the Enugu State chapter of the NLC, he should not dare the national body because since this wage bill is now an Act, it is binding on every state.
“These governors should remember that they swore to uphold the constitution of the country. Chime should better pay us or be ready to face the workers’ war,†it said.
NAN recalls that the national leadership of the NLC, led by its Deputy President, Mr. Kiri Mohammed, had on Monday given the state government a two-week ultimatum to implement the new wage for its workers.
Mohammed said labour would make any state which denied its workers the minimum wage ungovernable.
He urged the workers to go back to work and assured them that if the government did not reach any agreement with them in two weeks, they would besiege the state for a total strike which will include all sectors of the state.