Striking Nasarawa workers grumble over unpaid salaries

AS the strike by Nasarawa State workers enters the fourth week, some Muslims among them have said that were being forced to break their fast with water.

Some of them, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lafia, regretted that salaries had not been “in the past for months”.

“The Ramadan period is here, but it has been difficult to cope because salaries have not been paid,” one of them who gave his name as Mohammed Salihu, told NAN.

Salihu, who said that he was an accountant in a secondary school, urged government to pay workers to enable those fasting to cater for their families during the holy month.

“People are being subjected to daily hardship during this fasting period. We need our salaries to meet pressing domestic needs as responsible parents,” Salihu said.

He said that fasting had a lot of blessings from Allah, adding that every Muslim was expected to partake in it.

Salihu regretted that he had been unable to buy any food for the breaking of fast in his house “for some days now”.

“Even as I am talking today, I do not know what my family will eat,” he said.

Another civil servant, Ali Bako, said that his children in private schools had been sent home over the failure to settle fees “for two terms”.

He said that aside the salaries, government had not promoted workers for several years.

“There have been no salaries and no annual salary increments. Things are really tough,” he said.

Bako appealed to government to meet the demands of workers so that they would resume work.

Another worker, Mrs Halima Tukur, said that life had not been easy for her “for a very long time”.

“Salaries are hardly paid. I have not been promoted for a very long time, leading to career stagnation. Things keep getting bad,” she said.

She appealed to the government to consider the interest of the masses and make the welfare of workers its priority.

NAN reports that the workers commenced an indefinite strike action on May 12, 2017 to press home their demands for better working conditions.