Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has said many local governments workers in Borno State earn less than N18,000 minimum wage since the introduction of the old wage.
NLC chairman, Bulama Abiso, during his address at the Workers Day celebration yesterday in Maiduguri, lamented that government was yet to pay some workers the N18,000 minimum wage.
“Our story in the labour industry in Borno State is one of mixed feeling of joy and sadness. Some comrades are yet to benefit from the package. This is only one of the myriads of challenges we are battling with under this administration,” Abiso said.
He charged the state government to settle the outstanding 142 percent pension and N20 billion backlog of gratuity from 2013 to all retirees.
“Government should also resume payment of monthly gratuity to retirees by allocating N150 million monthly as it were before which was stopped since 2015,” he said.
The labour leader also decried the shortage of teachers in primary and secondary level in the state.
He said there were about 5,000 teachers in the secondary schools in the state and 26, 000 teachers at the primary and junior school level before 2016 and expressed concern that over 7, 000 teachers have left the teaching service for different reasons including retirement, transfer of service, death among others.
“We had about N5,000 teachers in the secondary schools before 2015 but only about 2,500 teachers remain now. Likewise before 2015, there were 26,000 teachers in the primary and junior schools but only 2,500 teachers,” he disclosed.