No salary for striking Plateau workers, says official

The Plateau state government has threatened to invoke the “no work, no pay” principle, against striking local council workers, saying that workers who did not work would not be allowed to continue to receive salaries.

“When government threatened to invoke the “no work, no pay” law, some people interpreted it as being wicked. The doctrine of “no work, no pay” is simple. When a person is employed, it is expected that the work will be carried out. When work is not done, the employee is not eligible for payment of salary. “No work, no pay” lays a strong foundation to industrial peace and harmony in the long run.”

The commissioner for local government, Paul Wai announced government’s decision today as the strike lengthens beyond the second week. The workers embarked on strike to press home their demand for the full payment of the N18,000 minimum wage as against the half salaries they have been receiving since January.

Briefing newsmen in Jos, Wai said any worker who went on strike, did not deserve to be paid salary.

However, Wai explained that the workers and state government had agreed that the N18,000 would only be paid when the allocation to the local government councils in the state improved. The workers insist that the allocation to the state from the Federation Account had improved

But the commissioner insisted that the allocation had not improved significantly.

“The current on-going strike by local government workers is erroneously based on the misinformation that there has been an increase in allocation from the Federation Account to the local government councils in Plateau state. The information making the rounds is that excess crude has been regular from January to date. The fact is that since November 2011, there has not been any excess crude. What is available and which also constitutes part of gross is augmentation.
The other source which is very negligible and not regular is NNPC refunds. These are disbursements which every Local Government Council has copies. It is a known fact that excess crude is no longer being shared. Rather than having an increase, the allocation has been on the downward trend from December 2011 to April 2012. The facts are there for anyone who wants to verify,” said the commissioner.

Wai also denied that the state government was unable to pay the full minimum wage because it was diverting the local government funds to building a new government house.

“It is also not true that government has been diverting Local Government funds to build the new Government House at Little Rayfield. This is malicious and a calculated attempt to incite the public against government. Apart from statutory deductions, the state government does not tamper with local government funds,”
he said.

Wai appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state to call off the strike while meaningful as concrete steps would be taken to address issues related to low income generation and staff welfare at the local government level.