New Telegraph

Survey: 12 states owe workers’ salaries

No fewer than 12 states in Nigeria owed workers at least one month’s salary as of July 28, 2022, a BudgIT nationwide survey has shown. The civic-tech organisation, in a statement yesterday, said it conducted the “empirical survey to spotlight and identify state governments that have consistently failed to meet the essential requirement of governance and employee compensation, thereby subjecting their workers to unpaid labour and harsh living conditions.”

According to the statement, while the findings from the survey favoured states that are not in arrears, states such as Abia, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Ondo and Taraba “owe three years or less in payments.” Specifically, it stated that “Abia State currently owes its state tertiary institution workers six months’ salary, while Ebonyi has not paid its pensioners in the last six months. “Secretariat workers in Taraba complained of irregular salary payments for up to six months, while lecturers at state tertiary institutions and midwives in the state-owned hospital in Ondo State have not been paid a dime in the last four months.” The statement reported an anonymous secondary school health institution worker in Abia as saying that the state government had not paid salaries in the last 10 months, adding that the payment made to him in 2021 was his basic salary, which did not include other allowances.

Commenting on the survey’s findings, Budg- IT’s Head of Research and Policy Advisory, Iniobong Usen, noted that civil servants’ remuneration, whether at the state or federal level – as and when due – was a necessary part of the employer/employee relationship as it is critical to the smooth working of the government. He explained that this was not only because the survival and livelihood of civil servants depended on timely salary payment but also because, according to him, “the government’s refusal to pay smacks of the disregard for the legal obligation to pay. “Nigerian civil servants are unfortunately no strangers to delays and gaps in monthly salary payments.

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