Femi Mustapha
The over 20,000 Workers in Kaduna state who are yet to receive their two monthly backlog Salaries of October and November respectively to be paid soon.
This was disclosed by the Chairman Trade Union Congress(TUC), Kaduna State Council, Comrade Abdullahi Alhassan Danfulani, in a press briefing at the Secretariat, on Friday.
According to him, it is no more a secret that more than half of the Public servants of the state could not access their salaries and wages for two months now, a situation he described as worrisome to the union.
He said the Congress met with the government on the ongoing verification exercise as required by workers in Kaduna state, as well, the possibility of paying the two months Salaries with immediate effect while the verification is ongoing.
“Permit me to Formally welcome you all to this important press conference that is made to shed more light on the current verification Exercise, that is the second phase of the government reform policy of the Public Service of the state.
“In other to familiarize ourselves at the level of the Trade Union Congress Of Nigeria(TUC) with the nitty-gritty of the exercise, the congress met with the Government through the Office of the Head of Service of the State and also, an Official letter to that effect was dispatched to His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kaduna state, , Mallam Nasiru El-rufai, informing him of the problems and challenges that our members are being faced with as a result of the Non-payment of the salaries to over 20,000 workers of the state since October 2021.”
“The outcome of our interface include the possibility of paying the two months Salaries with immediate effect while the verification Exercise is ongoing”
To this effect, Comrade Abdullahi disclosed that having done that, the response from the different levels of the government to their request shows that the issue will soon be a thing of the past, as workers will receive their salaries before the end of this month.
“We are pleased to hereby inform our members to be more focused and perseverance as these problems and challenges shall soon become a thing of the past”.
Continuing, “With the windows of opportunity made available for the affected workers to upload their documents to the government portal for further consideration in case of there might have been errors of omission or commission in their previous submissions, we hereby implore our concerned members to quickly do that without further delay as those whose documents are cleared would be reinstated and their backlog Salaries paid accordingly”.
Speaking also, the Chairman Academic Staff Union, Secondary Schools, Kaduna State Chapter, Comrade Ishaya B. Dauda, noted that its members who constitute half of the total workers in Kaduna state are most affected by the Non-payment of the two monthly Salaries.
He also reiterated that the Government promised to pay the two monthly Backlog salaries as the Online Verification Exercise is ongoing. Thus, appealed to his members to be quick with the exercise before the timeline elapses.
However, Mr. Ishaya disclosed that arrangements are made for a Secretariat to be open soon for members who could not successfully upload their documents on the portal.
