Your Strike Mischievous And Illegal- Ita Berates NLC
As traces of deaths lurks with vultures in almost every roof, Cross River state chapter of the NLC joins in performing these postmortem without a sterilised knive.
In a statement made available to peoplereporters.com Wednesday in Calabar by Mr Christian Ita, Special adviser to Prof. Ben Ayade on Media and Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, he berated the Union for being agents of doom by embarking on an unconstitutional and mischievous industrial action amidst the ravaging pandemic rather than complementing government efforts in suing for peace.
The Media Adviser re-echoed government commitment in full implementation of the new minimum wage in spite of limited resources at her disposal.
He added that while other states with higher Federal allocations has resorted to workers retrenchment and salary downsizing, Cross River state have refused to join the bandwagon.
Ita noted that he watched with nostalgia as other organised labour such as the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and the Joint Public Negotiating Council, shunned the trivia strike by the state chapter of NLC in view of it illegality and unconscionability.
“It is therefore insensitive, unconscienable and mischievous on the part of the NLC to pursue selfish and narrow agenda in the guise of defending workers interest.
“Besides the fact that the strike is illegal, it is morally reprehensible that a labour Union will call workers out on strike at a time economies are reeling under the debilitating effect of the coronavirus pandemic, that has led to loss of revenues with attendant job losses and even a slash in salaries of both public and civil servants by some states.
“Some states with significantly higher federal allocations than Cross River have since slashed workers salaries without labour calling out workers on strike. Rather than join these states to reduce workers salaries, Cross River, in spite of receiving second to the least allocation in the country, has during this period of COVID-19 pandemic implemented the new minimum wage in full.
“the unilateral call for strike by the NLC violates the extant rules governing the declaration of trade dispute.
“As it becomes apparent that their ill-advised call for strike has failed, the leadership of NLC has become desperate to the extent of physically assaulting workers who show up for work. This is clearly an illegal act, which government will not tolerate”.
On the outstanding issues with labour.
“The government had long resolved other outstanding issues with labour, but for the lockdown occasioned by the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, there was nothing much the government could do but wait for the complete easing of the kickdown”.
Ita said
