Edo LG workers begin indefinite strike

 

Local government workers, under the aegis of the National Union of Local Government Employees, on Monday began an indefinite strike to protest the non-payment of salaries owed their members in some of the local government councils in Edo State.

The workers also protested what they described as the casualisation of workers in the 18 local government councils of the state.

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The State President of NULGE, Mr. Edward Ilenikhena, told our correspondent on telephone that workers in 11 LG councils were being owed salaries of one to four months of December last year, while the number had increased to 15 in January.

Ilenikhena explained that some of the workers were yet to be fully employed by the local government authorities, as they had remained as casual workers against international labour standard.

He also vowed that the strike would persist until both the Ministry of the Local Government and Chieftancy and the LG chairmen responded to their demands, as they (workers) would not allow themselves to be treated as “second class citizens.”

Ilenikhena said, “They (state government) should stop casualisation, and should pay those outstanding salaries that they are owing all our members; these are the two main issues.

“Owan East has 122 (and) Esan Central has 180. It’s indefinite because it is a question of when somebody goes to work and, at the end of the month, you don’t get salary. We are the only functional establishment in the state that is being owed salary.”