The organized labour in Abia State has rejected the directive by the Head of Service to upload workers’ documents online, citing security risks and potential “labour enslavement”.
According to The PUNCH, the Nigeria Labour Congress Trade Union Congress and Joint Negotiating Council issued a joint statement on Monday, condemning the move as “retrogressive” and “slavery of workers”.
The unions the online upload of documents would expose workers to hackers and compromise their security.
They also expressed concerns over the lack of transparency and secrecy surrounding the exercise, which they believe is a ploy to further burden workers with financial challenges without a corresponding review of their take-home packages.
The statement read, “The state government has refused to engage the organised labour on the consequences of the unfortunate hike in the price of petrol which has unleashed massive suffering on the Abia workers. There is a renewed onslaught of executive rascality by government appointees on Abia workers and the state government has flagrantly refused to engage the organised labour to look into the grey areas of the online uploading of documents.
“The online uploading of documents and its undisclosed hidden packages would make Abia workers easy target to hackers. The online uploading of documents and its consequences is akin to labour enslavement. The exercise is covered with a lot of secrecy which has made it difficult for the government to discuss it with the organised labour.
“The numerous changes being introduced in civil service without recourse to the Civil Service Rules. Verification exercises in the state have become too many while the welfare packages of the workers are neglected and hat previous verification exercises left most Abia workers with the heavy burden of unpaid salaries of seven months, eight months, nine months, etc.”
Based on the the observation, the state organised labour therefore resolved that their earlier position on the issue remains sacrosanct.
It added, “That on our own as leaders of the workers, we would not fold our hands and watch Abia workers being taken into labour slavery, that it still views the exercise as retrogressive to the earlier vision of the governor to fish out ghost workers from the system, that another online uploading of documents is another financial burden to the workers; faced with various financial challenges without review of their take-home packages.
“That their earlier position, that government should as a matter of urgency put the exercise on hold till grey areas around the exercise are tidied up subsists to avoid an industrial crisis in the state.”
It added, “No Abia worker in the MDAs and seventeen (17) Local Government Areas should Present his or her self for any form of on-line uploading of documents as those who did discovered there are other hidden packages which the organizers refused to disclose before the exercise.”
