The Senate Deputy Chief Whip and Senator Representing the good people of Ebonyi North Senatorial district, Distinguished Senator Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi has described the strike action embarked upon by Ebonyi Labour Union as unnecessary stressing that Governor Nwifuru is the most Worker’s friendly Governor in Nigeria.
Senator Nwebonyi made the statement on Thursday, December 5, 2024 while reacting to the one week warning strike declared by the Nigerian Labour Congress in 14 states of the federation including Ebonyi state over the none implementation of the New National Minimum wage effective from December 1, 2024.
He stated that the Ebonyi Labour Union was ill-advised to join the strike considering the manifest commitment of Governor Nwifuru in improving the welfare of the state civil servants through myriads incentives and the timely implementation of the new minimum wage.
He therefore urged them to call off the strike and go back to the negotiating table in order to address all grey areas.
The astute federal legislator reeled out some of the improved welfare packages of the Governor to Ebonyi workers including the wage award of N20,000 across board to all the state civil servants even before the announcement of the new national minimum wage, the N100,000 Christmas bonus to them, clearing of the backlog of arears of pensions and gratuities owed civil servants from 1996 to date, the approval of N75,000 as the new minimum wage for the state workers, the procurement of CNG buses for easy movements of the civil servants to and from their offices, the prompt payment of their monthly salaries and increased budgetary allocations to them among other incentives. In his words:
“The labour union should not distract the Governor from the good works he is doing in the state, they should rather teem up with the Governor to move the state forward. I know that it’s within their rights to embark on industrial action in order to press home their legitimate demands but Ebonyi Labour Union should not have joined the industrial action because Governor Nwifuru has good intentions for them.
The leadership of the union are supposed to have explored more channels of peaceful negotiations before joining the strike. Be that as it may, there is an urgent need to come back to the round table and discuss all grey areas surrounding the minimum wage. I believe that the problem is mainly caused by procedural technicalities and communication gap between the two parties.”
The Federal lawmaker who’s also the Vice Chairman of the ECOWAS Standing Committee on Education, Sciences and Culture called for total support and sacrifices from the civil servants because the Governor has prioritized the welfare of workers despite the competing needs of the state.
He maintained that Governor Nwifuru is making a lot of sacrifices to take the state to a greater height and therefore enjoined all hands to be on deck for him to deliver the dividends of democracy to all Ebonyians.
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