Cross River State Government has directed all Permanent Secretaries and workers in the state work force to resume work or be sanctioned in accordance to civil service rules.
The Head of state’s Service, Geraldine Akpet-Ekanem, gave the directives in a statement she personally signed with reference no GO/HOS/99/Vol.1/152.
According to the statement: “following the indefinite suspension of strike action by the National Industrial Court, the state government has directed all Permanent Secretaries and workers to resume work unfailingly”.
“Workers are requested to note that attendance will be taken at the various MDAs by the Directors/Heads of Administration and immediately submitted to the Office of the Head of Service for necessary action”
“Absenteeism will not be tolerated”, the statement warned.
it could be recalled that organized labour in the State had been on strike for the past 13 days following the failure of the state government to meet their 14-points demands as contained in a statement issued after the congress and jointly signed by the state Chairman of the NLC, Ben Ukpepi and the state Trade Union Congress Chairman, Monday Ogbodum, and four other officials.
The demands and grievances of the workers include implementation of promotions of both state and local government workers, non remittance of deductions from workers’ salaries, full implementation of minimum wage to both state and local government workers, and non implementation of full 27.5% teachers enhancement allowance.
Others include, stoppage of tax exemption and allowance for teachers, payment of hazard allowances for medical and health workers, inclusion of all staff employed but not yet payrolled by the state, reinstatement of pensioners wrongly removed from payroll, non payment of gratuities to both state and local government workers, among other demands.