Akwa Ibom State government has raised a committee to negotiate with labour unions after it was issued with a 14-day ultimatum over sundry demands including payment of leave grants and an end to salary consultancy among others.
According to a statement, the joint government and labour committee headed by Ephraim Inyangeyen, chief of staff to the state governor is to negotiate issues affecting the labour force.
Other members of the committee include head of the Civil Service, Efiong Essien and the commissioner for labour and manpower planning, Sunny Ibuot, while the labour side will be led by the chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in the state, Sunny James, assisted by the NLC secretary and treasurer, Iboro Ibara and Effiong Nya, respectively, among others.
The state commissioner for information and strategy, Ini Ememobong, said the committee was to negotiate the 13-point demands of the NLC and submit a comprehensive report within 30 days to the governor.
The state council of the NLC said it took the decision to issue an ultimatum after the government failed to accede to its demands. The union added that it had served the government a similar ultimatum on October 7, but the demands were not attended to by the government.
According to NLC chairman, the demands include payment of the 2020 leave grants to all civil servants, an immediate end to salary consultants, an immediate end to the encroachment on the land earlier allocated by the government to the organised labour. Others include immediate implementation of promotions and payment of accrued promotion arrears to civil servants and clearance of backlogs of gratuities to retirees.
