A national executive council member of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Henry Orumbo, has appealed to state governments including the federal government to motivate workers if they must put in their all in the civil service.
He said that there should be promotion, salary increase and proper placing for civil servants who work in the various ministries in the thirty-six states and at the federal level.
He said that civil servants as engine room of government should be motivated so they could perform.
Comrade Orumbo said: “You have a car (and) you have an engine and for five years you’ve not serviced that engine, how do you expect that engine to perform? There has been no increment, no promotion, there’s no motivation to make a worker put in his or her best”.
He said that civil servants across the country were committed and put in their all in spite of unfriendly work environment.
He also said that politicians were not allowing civil servants to do their work.
He said where there were claims that civil servants do some work they merely act as rubber stamp to politicians.
Workers generally celebrate Workers’ Day every year on 1 May.
Workers in Nigeria celebrated workers’ day on May 1 and it was also celebrated around the world in most countries.
The national executive council member of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said government should also pay retired civil servants their pensions and gratuities.
He said that it was unacceptable that state governments would not pay retired workers their pensions and gratuities.
“You have people that have retired (and) most of them are not even up to the director level (and) you have people that their gratuity is as little as eight hundred thousand (or) one million (or) 1.2 and they are not getting it”.
He said workers should be appreciated after many years of service.
He also said that workers retiring from service ought to be paid their gratuity almost immediately as they left service.
The national executive council member of the labour group spoke as a guest on a programme on Nigeria Info 92.3 in Port-Harcourt to mark this year’s workers’ day.
