Bayelsa Govt. rejects NLC’s classification as “highest workers’ indebted state’’

The Bayelsa Government on Monday dismissed the classification of the state as one of the states with highest indebtedness to its workforce by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).

NLC President Ayuba Wabba had at the weekend listed Bayelsa as the third state with the highest salary backlog.

The NLC president listed the other states as: Benue, Kogi, Ekiti, Imo, Ondo, Abia and Oyo.

Mr Daniel Iworiso-Markson, Bayelsa Commissioner for Information, in a statement he issued in Yenagoa, said that Bayelsa remained amongst states with the least indebtedness to its workforce and described the NLC’s classification as misleading.

Iworiso-Markson who declined to mention the state’s indebtedness to its workforce, said that the NLC did not consult with the state on the issue.

He said that the report was done in bad faith because it lacked substance as it did not reflect the true position of things in the state.

“As at now, the government is not owing salaries of its workers in the civil service as we have kept faith with payment since the beginning of the year till date”, he stated.

The commissioner said that the Bayelsa Government had always fulfilled its salary obligations until recently due to fall in the state’s monthly allocation from the Federal Government.

He said government had to borrow a number of times to make up for the shortfall to ensure that salaries were paid.

However, investigations by our reporter revealed that civil servants in the state were being owed a backlog of five months’ salary accumulated in 2016.

Mr Tari Dounana, Bayelsa chapter Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), told NAN in a telephone chat that backlog owed civil servants stood at four and half months.

He said that teachers were the worst affected with 10 months outstanding salary.

Recall that primary schools in Bayelsa have remained shut since resumption of the 2017/2018 academic session, as a result of the ongoing indefinite strike by Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).

Dounana said that the strike was due to non-payment of 10 months’ salary arrears the teachers.