By Vincent Ujumadu
AWKA—THE organised labour in Anambra State, yesterday, asked the state government to scrap without further delay, the contributory pension scheme because it has failed in the state.

The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Jerry Nnubia said the call became necessary because the monies being deducted from workers’ salary were not remitted to the appropriate quarters.

Members of National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, during May Day match past.

Addressing reporters as part of activities to mark this year’s World Day for Decent Work, WDDW, the state chairman of NLC, Nnubia threatened that workers in the state might take to the streets to drive home their point, if the deductions were not stopped forthwith.

According to him, since the state government had not put in place any structural framework for the management of the scheme as provided by the extant laws for it to succeed, all deductions made so far from workers’ salaries in the name of the scheme should be refunded.

He said: “Since 2014, when the contributory pension scheme was passed into law, the state government has continued to deduct the salaries of workers in the name of the scheme without remitting same and that of government counterpart contribution to the appropriate quarters.

“We therefore wish to restate our earlier demand that the scheme be scrapped in the state forthwith. It is also our demand that payment of arrears of gratuity owed to pensioners who retired from local government service and from primary school from 2016 till date be made.”

“Congress also demands that part of the last tranche of Paris Club refund to states and local governments be utilized to settle the backlog of the gratuities.”

He also called on the state government to harmonize the salaries of both the state and local government workers, including the Health Salary Structure (HSS), to be at par, arguing that a situation where two salary tables exist in the state was unacceptable.

Nnubia also urged the federal government and other critical stakeholders to fast track the process of the national minimum wage negotiation through the tripartite committee, so that a new national minimum wage would soon come on stream, as Nigerian workers could no longer bear the hardship resulting from the harsh economic situation in the country.

He said that the World Day for Decent Work was a reminder to government and all employers of labour that decent work meant a fair income and ensured security in the workplace and social protection for families.

Vanguard recalls that the World Day for Decent Work was launched by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in 2008 and marked on 7th October of every year