At least, 22 Nigerian governors are yet to pay salaries of civil servants in their respective states.
This disclosure was made by Secretary General of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Comrade Issa Aremu.
Speaking with newsmen in Kaduna yesterday at the NUTGTWN meeting, Aremu described the development as a wage theft, wage robbery and economic crime.
Aremu, also a Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC) said it is three months now since 22 state governors are delaying or refusing to pay salaries despite spending money on delegates and other activities during the just-concluded party primary elections across Nigeria.
His words: “We see that delay in payment of salaries as wage theft, wage robbery. It is actually an economic crime because Nigeria labour law says thou shall pay the worker as at when due. In fact by 22nd of every month you must have pay the workers fully.
“We never heard of any delegate being owed a single penny during the primary elections, but they cannot get money to pay the workers. In fact, some of the delegates even bought new cars and properties after the primaries because they money they got in just few days is much more than what workers earn in many months. The governors should go to the place they got they money to pay delegates and settle the workers’ salaries.”
The labour leader disclosed that his union, NUTGTWN, has succeeded in negotiating a 15% increase in wages for its members, making it 35% increase in the last four years.
“This shows that the process of collecting bargaining is working in the private sector and we will like to recommend this process for the public sector because most of their crisis is on the increase of wages and salaries which has been causing endless strikes and unfavourable industrial actions,” Aremu said.
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