The Cross River State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has suspended its week-old strike it embarked upon on the 29th of June, 2020 over issues bordering on promotion arrears, minimum wage, restoration of names of workers illegally removed from the payroll etc.
The labour union had accused the state government of failing to address their demands but instead turned a blind eye to all their request by sourcing for a court injunction to stop the expression of their constitutional rights.
Comrade Ben Ukpabi, the NLC chairman in Cross River State said before the union went on strike: “It is very obvious that Cross River state is not interested in the welfare of her workers. Workers issues presented to government have been ignored. Even some issues that Organised Labour has reached agreement on have all been abandoned and rejected by the government.
But in a statement signed by the Chairman (Ukpebi) on Sunday, and made available to newsmen, he called for the suspension of the strike. The statement asked all workers to resume on Monday, July 6, 2020.
The statement reads, “All public/civil servants are hereby directed to resume work immediately to give way for further discussions on the issues raised concerning the welfare of it’s members.”
He added that the state government had agreed to commence the screening and restoration of names of the over 2, 000 workers dropped in September 2019, from its payroll.
The Government has also agreed to look into other items as contained in Bulletins 1, 2, and 3 on the demands made by the state branch of the NLC as they bother on the welfare of its members.
NLC State Vice Chairman Disagrees...
Comrade Ukpabi's directive seemed to have not gone down well with the Vice Chairman, Comrade Lawrence Achuta, who disagreed, saying Bulletin 9 that suspends the strike action is a sole product of the Chairman, Comrade Ukpepi.
According to him, the State Administrative Council and the State Executive Council are yet to meet on the purported suspension and that there was no agreement yet with the Government on the issues presented to them.
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