Federal workers, under the auspices of the Federal Workers Forum (FWF), have urged the federal government, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to pay their outstanding three-month wage awards.
The federal workers made this declaration during an online
meeting held on Saturday.
Our correspondent gathered that the federal government
introduced a wage award for workers after the subsidy was removed from Premium
Motor Spirit (PMS). The federal workers have appealed to the government to pay
the wage awards for March, April, and May.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and made
available on Sunday, the federal workers emphasized that they are
not slaves.
The communiqué, made available through the National
Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze, stated: “It has been nearly four months
since the federal government stopped the payment of wage awards to federal
workers. Despite repeated pleas to the federal government (FG) to resume the
payments, all efforts have fallen on deaf ears.
“The federal government workers met online to critically
review our last request to the FG to pay the outstanding March, April, and May
wage awards, among other things. It was generally agreed that the FG is
pretending not to know that we, the federal workers, are experiencing unimaginable
hardship since the removal of the fuel subsidy.
“We, therefore, resolve as follows: To embark on continuous
peaceful protests and demonstrations in all federal government secretariats
nationwide. These protests will become a ritual until the welfare needs of the
federal workers and pensioners are addressed.
“The protests will commence on June 24th and continue until
the issues of the wage award and the new national minimum wage are resolved.
Every federal worker must take this protest as a duty, and anyone who opposes
this continuous protest is an enemy of the workers.
“We call for the support and solidarity of all industrial
unions, the NLC, and the TUC as we, the federal workers, embark on this
marathon session of peaceful protests and demonstrations across the federation.
We condemn the idea of retired federal workers waiting for over a year before
receiving their pensions and gratuities.
“We urge federal workers to be armed with the fact that
protest is a fundamental human right, and any federal worker who decides to
dodge this collective agreement is a traitor. We are citizens, not slaves.
Enough of this exploitation of the vulnerable. The government has cheated us
enough. Pay us what you owe us. We have worked for it; we are not beggars.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com