Forget pay rise, no more 13th month salary – Umahi tells Ebonyi workers

Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi on Friday stated that he has no powers to increase salaries of local government workers.
Threatening to sack any civil servant that indulges in politics ahead of the 2019 elections, he also said 13th-month salary will no longer be paid.

Umahi spoke at a meeting with members of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ebonyi state chapter and other affiliated unions at the Government House.
His words: “We are doing everything to protect the local government but unfortunately the present chairmen said they cannot afford to pay the 5 percent salary increase and I don’t have the powers to actually increase LG workers salaries.

“If the situation improves, I will increase the salary again. Workers should be happy that we are paying salaries on 15th of every month and it is never done anywhere in the country.

“No one else would do that for you. We can give bonus to everybody but since the workers are not appreciative of this fact, it seems we will stop the payment of the 13th month.
“Tell workers that what I promise to pay is promotion allowance and not leave allowance. No body discussed leave allowance with workers”.