Success Nwankwo
The organised labour in Abia State has declined the state government call for online verification of employees, claiming that the online uploading of workers’ documentation is regressive and constitutes worker slavery in the state.
In a statement issued on Monday and signed by Abia The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC Chairman Okoro Ogbonnaya; the State Council of Trade Union Congress, TUC, Chairman Enogwe Ihechi; and the Joint Negotiating Council, JNC Chairman Comrade Madubuko, the online uploading of documents will expose workers to hackers.
It could be recalled that the Abia state government had through the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, ordered all workers to upload their credentials online.
Organized Labor in its statement said, “That on our own as workers’ leaders, we would not fold our hands and watch Abia workers being taken into labour slavery, that it still views the exercise as retrogressive to the governor’s earlier vision of removing ghost workers from the system, that another online uploading of documents is another financial burden to the workers; faced with various financial challenges without a review of their take-home packages.
It also stated, “No Abia worker in the MDAs and seventeen (17) Local Government Areas should Present his or her self for any form of on-line uploading of documents as those who did discovered there are other hidden packages which the organisers refused to disclose before the exercise.”
In response, the Abia state Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu
explained that the exercise is an attempt to maintain accurate record keeping of the state employees, adding that it was made online to prevent workers from going through the stress of congregating to queue.
However as a reason for the exercise, Kanu noted that “the government had planned to make certain appointments from within the civil service and when the files of some senior civil servants were brought forward, it was found out that there were no papers (necessary documents) in those files”
He also said there were questions as regards the credentials with which these civil servants were working. On what basis were they employed? On what basis have they been promoted over the years? Questions and more questions.
