Delight Chinedum
Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Anambra State has demanded immediate payments of salary areas of its members allegedly labelled ghost workers by the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC).
The union threatened to shut down services across the 21 local government areas of the State if the salaries were not paid by month end.
The Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) had earlier announced discovery of 427 ghost workers earning salaries from government without being staff members.
It said 59 among the ghost workers were employees of the commission who died long ago, 40 retired but were still on the state payroll, while 11 others were living abroad.
But addressing over 30 workers who stormed his office to protest the non-payment of three months salaries, NULGE President, Comrade Chikwelu Adigwe said he was at loss to the criteria deployed to determine real ghost workers, as their leaders at the grassroots had not confirmed such allegations.
He said, “Since the ghost workers’ rumour started spreading, we’ve not made any statement. We’ve forwarded your complaint to the Commission; but are surprised to hear that some of you have not been paid.
“I don’t know the yardstick used to come about the ghost workers. There are procedures to be followed including verification, issuing of query, but I learnt none of such was carried out.
While sympathizing with the workers, the NULGE boss assured them of quick intervention to their plight.
“We’re going to delegate three executive officers to accompany you to the commission to hear from the Chairman and to justify the time and resources spent coming to the state capital.
“It’s unfortunate that this is happening under the administration of Governor Soludo who is passionate about workers’ welfare, including prompt payments of salaries.
“We’re here on your mandate, so we can’t afford to allow you to suffer unnecessarily. Tell the commission management that if at the end of this month we receive complaints from any worker, we’ll storm the commission and close it down,” he added.
Earlier, NULGE Chairman, Aguata Local Government Area, Comrade Odumodu Stephen who spoke on behalf of the protesting workers lamented untold hardship the affected members had suffèred to for the past months.
“We’ve been finding it difficult to take care of our families. Even to transport ourselves to this place, some of us had to borrow.
“These ones have been branded ghost workers and we need explanation of such allegations. We’re here so we can hear directly from you. If it means going to the Governor, we’re ready.”
Addressing the workers at the Commission, Chairman, LGSC, Vin Ezeaka said the commission had no intention to punish the workers, but to ensure sanity was restored in the system.
He however warned those not ready to work, but out to tarnish the image of the Commission to voluntarily tender their resignation letters or be shown the exit door.
He also advised the protesters to always report issues concerning their working condition to the Commission as their employer and not to NULGE as a Union.
“We’re not retrenching any worker, but we’re going to monitor those in our payroll. We have measures to dictate ghost workers so we don’t waste money meant for genuine workers on absentee workers,” he stated.