Workers of the New Nigerian Newspapers have cried out to the Northern States Governors Forum Chairman and Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, to pay their accumulated salaries to save them from the hardship they are going through.
A press statement signed by Comrade Friday Idoko, Funmi Aderinto, Usman Nasidi and Emmanuel Bello as chairmen and cecretaries of the in-house unions decried the slow pace of process initiated in 2017 to sell assets of the company in order to pay off salary arrears of staff.
The statement noted that following the delayed process many of the workers had died awaiting their unpaid wages owed by the Northern State Governors, while those working were facing all manners of embarrassment from landlords, are unable to feed and are unable to pay their children’s school fees.
According to the statement, some money had been realised from sales of the company’s property but were yet to be disbursed. The workers have urged the governor to promptly order disbursement of the sum to workers of the company to alleviate the hardship they have been subjected to.
The statement however commended efforts of the northern governors for ensuring the payment of the company’s pensioners who had worked under the Federal Government.
“The Joint Workers’ Union of New Nigerian Newspapers in its congress held on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, is appealing to the Chairman of Northern State Governors Forum, His Excellency, Governor Simon Lalong, to expedite action on the settlement of workers entitlements to save them from the present predicaments they have found themselves,” the statement explained.
The joint union comprising of members of Nigeria Union Of Journalists and National Union Of Printing , Publishing and Paper Products Union Workers, New Nigerian Chapel, expressed worries over workers plights due to non-payment of salaries for many years amounting to 100 months, saying that it had led to depression and deaths of over 103 staff awaiting their entitlements.
The statement read, “We are appealing to Governor Simon Lalong as a compassionate leader and head of the Northern States Governors’ Forum to use his good office to put smiles on our faces and those of our families by ordering prompt payment from the available resources realised from sales of the company’s property in order to give hope of survival for us and our children.”
The workers explained that they have been through a lot of hardship with many of their compatriots been ejected by their landlords as many could no longer pay their children’s school fees, lamenting that many have died due to one form of ailment or the other as a result of economic bottlenecks they were facing due to the inability to get their payments.
According to the statement, the workers said that they had so much confidence in the effective leadership of the northern states governors built on selflessness, passion to serve and commitment to welfare of their subjects.
Adding that is was their collective conviction that their appeal would receive the attention it deserved for prompt payment of their entitlements.