Our salaries can no more sustain us – Federal workers tell FG
Workers, under the umbrella of Federal Workers Forum (FWF) have lamented that their salaries are no longer sufficient with the growing cost of living and inflation.
The Forum made this revelation through a letter sent to the Head of Service of the federation.
The letter was titled “NEED FOR YOUR INTERVENTIONS CONCERNING THE PLIGHT OF FEDERAL WORKERS IN NIGERIA, PAY COST OF LIVING ALLOWANCE (COLA)”.
The workers have explained that they have found it extremely difficult to make ends meet.
The letter was signed by the forum’s National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze.
The workers appealed to the HOS to work on the non-payment of outstanding promotion arrears of workers and their DTA.
Emelieze has via the letter forwarded to newsmen on Wednesday, said it was painful that the working class has been going for promotion interviews but DTA is not paid to them.
“We write to bring to your attention some of the challenges confronting us as a working people. Foremost, with a fixed wage, our salaries has been eroded with the rising high cost of living and inflation that we are experiencing in Nigeria. It has been extremely very difficult for us to make ends meet and as such workers have gone borrowing.
“Ma, unfortunately, we noticed that some of our colleagues’ salaries have been stopped as a result of over borrowing. We are appealing to you to help intervene and temper justice with mercy and help reinstate the salaries of the affected officers in order to prevent a double jeopardy. We are also appealing that you help us look into the non-payment of outstanding promotion arrears of workers and their DTA.
“It is also painful to note that workers have been going for promotion interviews and DTA is not paid to them. Of late, most of the workers that did the directorate cadre exams were not paid a single Kobo, despite traveling to Abuja twice for accreditation, examinations and stayed weeks in Abuja.
“We appeal that, in the face of the economic realities on ground in Nigeria, that you consider a cost of living allowance to be paid to the federal government workers. Our humble suggestion is that we have a 30% of our salaries paid monthly as a monthly cost of living allowance (COLA). We the workers are sending you this proposal and we know that you will agree with us that this is a just proposal.
“We believe strongly that if you achieve this existential request of a cost of living allowance for federal workers, perhaps it will help swing other employers of labour to doing the same to their workforce, thus helping to reduce the general hardship Nigerian workers are going through,” he wrote.