… We’re committed to workers’ welfare, Gov. Namadi
By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse
As Nigerian workers joined the rest of the world in marking the International Workers’ Day, civil servants in Jigawa state have lamented over the delay in the payment of their April salary as a result of the ongoing workers’ verification exercise by the state government.
Stating the position of the workers in a speech, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) Com. Sunusi Alhassan submitted that not has the current exercise put the workers in the state of uncertainty, but has also jeopardized their hopes of being paid their legitimate entitlement as many legitimate workers have been declared ghost.
According to the NLC chief, while the organized labour acknowledges the right of every employer to conduct period audits of their workforce to help mitigate cases of employee infractions such as overstay in service, “We also believe that such exercises should not be done in a manner that causes hardships and uncertainties to workers, their immediate families and other dependants.
“We, therefore, call on the State Government to ensure that the migration to the Intergrated Personnel Payroll Management System, (IPPMS) platform is conducted in such a way that workers are not affected by any hidden charges, unnecessary bottlenecks in addressing routine complaints, underpayment of salaries and other similar ills associated with the platforms in other areas where it has been implemented. In the case of Jigawa state, the experience so far has been harrowing.
“Workers have been subjected to various degrees of hardships with many injured during the rushed and ill-organized data capture exercise that was marred by cases of extortion of various sums of money from our members. Many were forced to sleep on tarmacs and open spaces for days in order to participate in the exercise that could have done remotely with the help of technology.
“Worst stil, the consultants failed to capture more than 7800 legitimate workers labelling them as ghost workers, all in the quest to maximize their commission . To add to the workers’ woes, the state government has rushed to adopt the payment of salaries for the month of April with the IPPMS platform and this, expectedly, led to the underpayment of staff.
“Of those that have so far been paid, there’s hardly a single staff who was paid their correct salary figures as most were underpaid, while some were overpaid. Besides, names of thousands of workers appeared on the IPPMS vouchers, thereby throwing them into uncertainties. Because as at today, majority of civil servants in the state and local government councils have not received their April salaries. This is unprecedented.”
He, therefore, tasked the state government and the Consultants to quickly “rise up ithe challenges by addressing all identified problems and concerns.
However, the state government has re-iterated it’s commitments to promoting and defending the interest of it’s working force by evolving policies that would enhance their welfare and well-being at all times such as prompt payment of salaries, allowances, pensions for the deserved as well as the provision of palliatives for the workers where necessary.
Gov. Umar Namadi who was represented by his deputy, Aminu Usman Gumel gave the assurance, however, countered the figure of the 7,800 unpaid workers saying the actual figure stood at 7783. Out of the figure, he said 4496 were staff of the state JTeach programme by the State Universal Basic Education Board, (SUBEB) while the remaining 3,287 were permanent and pensionable workers.
“Even at that, he confirmed that the affected staff had been their April salary as at Wednesday, “because we had to use the other system, hoping that they will be screened very soon.”
The governor assured the workers that the screening exercise was not intended to witch hunt any workers, but aimed at sanitizing the payment system so as to ensure that no worker was shortchanged in future.
News5 days ago
News1 week ago
Business News1 week ago