Anambra: Soludo Threatens Salary Cuts for Workers Missing Work on Mondays Over ‘Sit-At-Home’
By Boniface Ihiasota, USA
The Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has issued a warning to state workers who do not show up for work on Mondays, known as sit-at-home days.
He stated that the sit-at-home has become an excuse for workers to skip work, and that such behavior cannot continue.
Speaking at the 2023 May Day celebration held at the Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, the governor noted that the state government had increased workers’ salaries by 10% in December, with the plea that they start returning to work on Mondays.
The Monday sit-at-home was introduced in the South-East by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, in 2021, to protest the arrest of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Although IPOB has claimed to have suspended the order, people in the state continue to observe it out of fear of attack.
Soludo, who had previously called a meeting of various stakeholders in the state to compel people to ignore the sit-at-home, stated that workers who continue to stay away from work on Mondays would be paid proportionally to the number of days they work.
He warned that the state would cut salaries for those who fail to show up for work on Mondays.
The governor also revealed that the state government has been running a budget deficit of N88bn in the last year, with the 2023 budget predicated on N4bn internally generated revenue every month.
However, the state has been generating only N2bn, and is getting less than the expected N5bn from the federal government.
Soludo called on workers to work towards generating revenue for the state government, to take care of workers’ welfare and other pressing issues.
The governor acknowledged that there were pressures on him to increase salaries, but warned that any increment would come with downsizing the workforce.
He urged labor leaders to study the proposal carefully.
