The chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Cross River State, Comrade Ben Ukpebi, has said that following the expiration of the initial two weeks notice to the Cross River State government, it is again giving the state government another one week notice in compliance with labour laws.
He said the state government had refused to have a meeting with the NLC.
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As a result, he said Labour was bent on embarking on a whole scale industrial action if the government still refuse to speak to its officials on backlog of salaries, seven years nonpayment of gratuities to pensioners since 2013, irregular salaries and other issues.
Speaking on a local radio station in Calabar, the NLC chairman said there was a need to address knotty labour issues with the government, adding that the seven days notice takes effect from Tuesday.
He also lamented that despite Governor Ben Ayade’s directive that the state accountant general should open a gratuity account and deposit a percentage of the federal allocations, nothing has been done.
Ukpebi said it is going to be very difficult for government to pay gratuities in the next four years as many more workers are going to retire into the increased number of retirees and pensioners.
He added that the state workforce will suffer.
He appealed to the state government to reinstate all the workers whose names were removed from the state payroll without cogent reasons.
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