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Minimum Wage: Rivers Health Workers Commence Indefinite Strike Amid COVID-19

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Health workers in Rivers State have embarked on an indefinite strike amidst the dangerous spread of CONVID-19 Pandemic.

Naija News Understands that the strike was at the instance of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella bodies for all public service workers in the state.

According to the union leadership, the strike action was due to the governor’s refusal to pay the agreed minimum wage of N30,000 in the state.

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One of the leaders who spoke to the correspondent of a  media house  stated that “In January, he paid some money to some workers N20,000, others N15,000 and so on. We can’t accept this.“Labour asked the template he used to arrive at such, because he had not concluded negotiations with the organised labour but there was no response.”

The union also alleged that the governor had excluded staff of tertiary institutions (universities and polytechnics) from those to enjoy the minimum wage.

Another labour leader said the refusal of the government to pay pensioners for a long time contributed to the strike.

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Paulinus Nsirim, commissioner for information, said there was a court injunction stopping the union from embarking on strike.

The strike commenced on Wednesday, March 25, the same day the state recorded its first case of the novel coronavirus.
In a circular sent to its members, the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress asked the workers to stay off work indefinitely.