Government workers in Anambra state have been threatened by Governor Charles Soludo over Monday sit-at-home.
Speaking on Monday, while addressing Anambra State workforce at the May Day Workers celebration held at Dr. Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, Soludo threatened to cut salaries of workers in the state who skip work on Mondays because of sit-at-home initially issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the entire South-East region of Nigeria.
The governor said that Monday sit-at-home had become an excuse for workers to avoid working on Mondays, warning that it could not continue.
Governor Soludo, who recently increased workers’ salaries by 10 percent said, “You cannot be working for just four days a week and earn full salaries. We must get back to working on Monday for the government. If we do not go to work, we must not get our full salary. We must be paid proportionally to the number of days we work. If we must continue not attending work on Monday, we must direct Saturday work.
“You must do your work and we cannot be working for 70 per cent and earn 110 per cent. We will cut your salaries when you fail to come to work on Monday.”
He added that the state government had been running on a N88 billion budget deficit for the past one year, explaining that the 2023 budget was predicated on N4 billion internally generated revenue every month but the state has been generating only N2 billion.
Governor Soludo further said that the state government was supposed to be getting N5 billion from the federal government but it was getting less.
He therefore called on the workers to braze up and work towards generating revenue to the state government in order to take care of the workers’ welfare and other state’s pressing issues.
Governor Soludo, who said that there was pressure on him to increase salaries and downsize the workforce, urged labour leaders to study the proposal.