Chairman of Anambra State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Emeka Nwafor has asked Governor Chukwuma Soludo to provide civil servants coming to work to Awka, the state capital on Mondays with vehicles and security in view of the sit-at-home.
It described as suicidal, workers coming to work in Awka on Mondays from areas like Ihiala, Onitsha and Aguata with commercial vehicles without government’s assured security arrangements.
He said by so doing, workers would feel safe and comfortable to shun Mondays sit-at-home and continue and come to work on Mondays, as directed by Governor Soludo.
Nwafor, who was reacting to Soludo’s May Day rally threats to cut down salaries of civil servant in the state who abscond from work on Mondays, maintained that the vehicles would not only convey the workers to their respective offices, but take them back to their destinations at the end of the day.
He said, “It will be suicidal for workers coming from areas like Ihiala, Onitsha and Aguata to board commercial vehicles on Mondays to travel to Awka and go back after the day’s work without assured security arrangements by the government.
“If the Governor wants all the workers to be coming to work on Mondays, he should provide buses to convey workers to Awka every Monday and then provide security to guide and protect the workers at the Secretariat until the day is over and the vehicles would equally take the workers back to their respective destinations at the end of the day.
“Commercial vehicles are still afraid of plying the roads on Mondays for fear of being attacked by hoodlums enforcing the illegal sit-at-home.
Also speaking, Chairman of Nigerian Civil Service Union, NCSU, Paul Uwaeze, said government should refurbish all the dilapidated office furniture and equipment to enhance productivity on the part of the workers, adding that government should stop imposing contractors on the workers to come and calculate their payroll for the workers.
In their separate speeches, the state chairman of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, Chinedu Nwabueze solicited state government support in improving their services in the state.
Comrade Nwabueze noted that the association has introduced ambulance services for accident victims along the federal and state highways to save lives and properties.
Southeast Zonal Chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Dr. Austin Udeozor appealed to Soludo to recognize them as partners in progress in the state, particularly now that the state government is looking for avenues to increase its internally generated revenue, IGR.
