THE newly elected President of the Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Clifford Daudu has threatened an industrial action in the 18 local government areas of the state if by the end of October, the salary arrears and statutory deductions of workers were not paid.

To avoid this, he called on all local government chairmen in the state to immediately pay salary arrears and the unremitted statutory deductions to their workers without further delay.

Daudu who stated this in an interaction with journalists in Benin City said where he said local government Council workers in Edo State are owed salaries spanning from 2017 to 2023, a situation he said has caused undue hardship for the workers.

He also berated the Councils? Management for the unremitted statutory deductions from workers? salary which he said was in several millions of naira.

According to Comrade Daudu, the NULGE wrote a series of letters to the Association of Local Governments Of Nigeria (ALGON) the umbrella association of all the chairmen which culminated in a meeting between the two associations and he said it was agreed that they would start to defray both the salary and deductions arrears from June 2024 but ?as at October 2024, the Councils are yet to honour their words despite several reminders from the Union.

?Despite increased allocation to the local government from the federation account and the improved rate of IGR, it is unacceptable that these arrears are left unpaid?.

He warned that ?the Union will not hesitate to mobilise its members for a total shut down of the Councils by the end of October if our demands for the payments are not met. (Vanguard)