Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, has threatened to reduce the pay of employees who do not come to work on Mondays.
Monday sit-at-home has become an excuse for employees not to come to work on Mondays, according to Soludo, and this must continue.
He said this while speaking to state employees on Monday at the Alex Ekwueme Square in Awka for the 2023 May Day celebration.
In December, the governor upped employees’ pay by 10% while appealing with them to resume work on Mondays.
Although the Indigenous People of Biafra, which instituted the Monday sit-at-home in the South-East in 2021 to protest the arrest of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has repeatedly stated that the order has been suspended, the people have continued to observe it out of fear of attack.
Soludo summoned a conference of key stakeholders in the state immediately after taking office as governor in 2021, when he pushed the people to disregard the Monday sit-at-home and resume regular activities, but the issue has remained the same.
“Monday sit-at-home has become an excuse for workers to not come to work on Mondays,” he added. This cannot go on. You cannot work four days a week and receive your entire income.
“On Mondays, we have to get back to work.” We must not be paid in full if we do not come to work. We must be compensated in accordance to the amount of days we labour. If we have to continue missing work on Mondays, we will start coming in on Saturdays.
“You must do your work, and we cannot work 70% of the time and earn 100% of the time.” We will reduce your pay if you do not report to work on Monday.”
The governor also revealed that the state government had a N88 billion budget deficit in the previous year.
According to him, the 2023 budget was based on N4 billion in domestically produced income every month, but the state has only earned N2 billion.
He said that the state was meant to get N5 billion from the Federal Government, but it is receiving less, and he urged employees to band together and strive to generate cash for the state government in order to take care of workers’ welfare and other critical state concerns.
Governor Soludo acknowledged that he is under pressure to raise wages, but he believes that doing so would necessitate a reduction in the workforce.
As a result, he requested union leaders to investigate the suggestion according to Punch Newspaper.
