From Petrus Obi, Enugu
In a deliberate attempt to check truancy in the local government system, newly appointed Local Government caretaker committee chairmen in Enugu State have adopted the policy of ‘no work, no pay’ for local government workers across the state.
In a town hall meeting with his workers at Agbani, the caretaker committee chairman for Nkanu West, Mr. Chika Igwesi, warned workers that their pay package at the end of the month would depend on their attendance to work for that month.
He noted that since his appointment he has been inundated with complaints from the workers, traders, keke riders, National Union of Road Transport Workers, prompting him to summon the town hall meeting.
“To NULGE, it is a ‘no work, no pay’ policy. You should work hard to make the local government move forward. And on our own part we will do everything possible to make sure that working environment is conducive for them and their salaries paid promptly.
“For the traders, you must understand that there is no reason to be in disharmony, we are people of peace and we are here to make peace in the market and the other associations attached to the market.
“The same for the keke and road transport workers, we want to harmonize everything to follow a dimension whereby at the end of my stay in the council they will be yearning for someone like me to return.
“There is a guideline from the state government which they call clock in, clock out, I am still investigating the way they operate it in the local government. I was told that some workers don’t come to work and I promised that I will look into it and know exactly the number that do come to work and the number that don’t.
“Just like I said earlier, I want to encourage them by doing the needful, making the Development Centres conducive, making the secretariat conducive and giving them work to do so that they can be coming to work.
Earlier, the chairman, Natiomal Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Nkanu West chapter, Comrade Nnaji George highlighted some of the problems of the workers to include victimization of workers, whereby about 20% of worker’s salaries are not signed by the chairman.
“It’s not a matter of how many months or years we are owed, but the manner the payment is made. We have about 1200 staff here but at the end of the month about 800 will be paid and the others won’t be paid. Not that they were not coming to work, they will be coming to work but at the end of the day the chairman will not sign their salaries for them.
“So the records may be showing that Nkanu West is up to date with salary…just like July salary now, a whole lot of Environmental Health Workers, none of them was paid; there salaries were just removed for no just cause. They don’t have any issues with the chairman.”