The Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has threatened to cut the salaries of workers in the state who skip work on Mondays because of the sit-at-home order initially issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra.
Though IPOB, which gave the order across the entire South East had cancelled it, some are still observing it.
Soludo, who spoke on the development on Monday during the Workers’ Day celebration at Dr. Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, the state capital, said the sit-at-home had become an excuse for workers to avoid working on Mondays.
He said: “You cannot be working for just four days a week and earn full salaries.
“We must get back to working on Monday for the government.
“If we do not go to work, we must not get our full salary.
“We must be paid proportionally to the number of days we work.
“If we must continue not attending work on Monday, we must direct Saturday work.
“You must do your work and we cannot be working for 70 per cent and earn 110 per cent.
“We will cut your salaries when you fail to come to work on Monday.”
Soludo, who recently approved a 10 per cent increase in the salaries of civil servants, said the state government had been running on a N88 billion budget deficit for the past one year.
He said the 2023 budget was predicated on N4 billion internally generated revenue every month, but the state has been generating only N2 billion.
He said the state government ought to be getting N5 billion from the Federal Government, but it was getting less.
He therefore called on the workers to brace up and work towards generating revenue for the state government in order to take care of their own welfare and other state’s pressing issues.
Soludo, who said that there was pressure on him to increase salaries and downsize the workforce, urged labour leaders to study the proposal.