The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has refuted the Kano state government’s claim about retired workers receiving monthly salaries, stating that these individuals are legitimate retirees awaiting the completion of their retirement processes.
In an interview with Journalists in Kano, the NLC, Chairman Comrade Kabiru Inuwa said the retired workers in question are not ghost workers but genuine retirees who have applied for their benefits and are waiting for the necessary formalities to be completed.
The Kano state government had set up a salary parade committee to clean up all malpractices involved in the payment of salaries in the state where it identified some workers still receiving monthly salaries even after their retirements.
“On the salary issues and the report that was given, I can authoritatively tell you that, that information is not true.
“Why because the department of salary of local governments wrote a memo that they have uncovered people who retired and their salaries are ongoing. Why is it like this?
“They are workers who have retired and sent their applications for retirement and they will be left up to the date they leave the service without their retirements being processed.
“Stoppage of salary is a process of completing retirement procedures. Nobody can stop your salary without having the necessary documents that you are leaving the service on so and so date. Those are the category of workers the government is referring to as ghost workers” he stated.
He explained that they continue to collect their salaries because their retirements were not processed and are therefore still workers.
“These are people whose retirements are not processed and are enrolled in the pension schemes and they receive monthly payments in their accounts, what would you expect of them?
“That is the major reason this is happening and we are taking care of that, the NLC is taking the bull by the horn. We will make it mandatory if were continue to have this problem, every retirement officer will be summoned by the NLC if we continue to have this problem” he added.
The NLC leader also condemned the way some workers engage in unnecessary debts from loan vendors calling on them to desist from such acts.
