BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI-Imo State Government has reacted angrily to demands of the State Council of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, describing it as “most unrealistic in view of the peculiar financial position of the state.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dr. Obinna Duruji, who was reacting in a telephone interview to the indefinite industrial action called by labour, also said the strike amounted to sheer blackmail.

He said: “The demand put forward by the labour leaders is most unrealistic in view of the peculiar financial position of the state. The declaration of indefinite strike amounts to sheer blackmail.”

Explaining what led to the labour crisis in the state, the Commissioner said government only signed agreement with labour for implementation in principle, adding that it was subject to what he called “figure delineation”.

Duruji claimed that “labour was demanding 90.4 per cent wage increase across board which would shoot up the state’s wage bill from over N2 billion to over N3 billion monthly, if implemented”.

According to the Commissioner, the state’s monthly statutory allocation stood at N3.5 billion, adding that what labour wanted excluded salaries of political appointees and pensions.

He said: “Government offered to increase workers’ wages by 90.4 per cent for those on salary grade levels one to four. Government also proposed 60 per cent for those on grade levels five to nine, 40 per cent for workers on 10 to 14 and 30 per cent for workers on 15 to 17.”

Meanwhile, at press time, labour leaders and their followers were still bent on ensuring full implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage across board.

Vanguard recalls that Imo workers commenced indefinite strike last Friday to back their demand, even as they insisted that there was no going back on the issue until their demand was fully met by the state government.