The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Abia State Council has called on the state government to as a matter of urgency suspend the current second verification exercise announced by the office of the Head of service for civil and public servants, ministries, departments, and the seventeen local government areas to go online and upload their documents with effect from May 10,2024 to May 31,2024 to avoid industrial crisis in the state
In a release jointly signed by the Chairman Abia State Council of the Congress Comrade Okoro Ogbonnaya and secretary Comrade Emma Alozie, Abia NLC wonders what has happened to the first online verification exercise in the state in which many workers are yet to be verified and their salaries withheld by government for over seven months now.
The state executive council of the congress rising from its emergency meeting on Saturday 11 may 2024, after a critical review of the said government announcement described it as a slight for government to again organise such a sensitive programme for our members without recourse to labour which is the umbrella body for the worker.
The NLC describes this exercise as regressive to earlier vision of the governor to fish out ghost workers from the system that another verification exercise few months after the first one is anti-workers considering the economic hardship the workers are going through with meagre salary.
Abia Labour points out that asking them to go online is another financial burden to the workers faced with various financial challenge and consequently directs that no Abia worker in MDAs and the 17 local government areas henceforth present him or herself for any firm of online verification pending when this issue would be discussed between Labour and government.
