Bayelsa workers reject N15,000 Christmas bonus

Workers in Bayelsa State have rejected the state government’s Christmas bonus of N15,000, insisting that they deserved better deal, having forfeited that of 2008 and 2009 in the wake of the down turn in the economy of the state caused by youth militancy.

Governor Douye Diri had proposed the payment of N15,000 across board for workers in the employ of the state government as Christmas bonus.

But the workers, under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, in a communiqué issued at the end of an emergency meeting in Yenagoa, rejected the gesture, accusing the government of being insensitive to their plight.

The communiqué, jointly signed by Comrade Bio Ben Basuo, Collins Yekorogha and Mrs. Koku Ebiowou Obiyai, chairmen, NLC, TUC, and Joint Negotiation Council, respectively, noted that Bayelsa civil servants, having forfeited their Christmas bonuses in the last two years because of the down turn in the state’s allocation from the federation account, deserved a fair deal from the government and not the N15,000 pittance being offered.

Calling on the state governor to take a second look at the offer, Labour, which conceded that the issue of Christmas bonus was the prerogative of the government, insisted that “it is now a tradition enjoyed not only by civil servants but also political office holders.”

The communiqué, entitled Rejection of N15,000 Christmas Bonus to civil servants in Bayelsa State, read, stated that “congress in session not only frowns but also rejects the gesture from government, after the workers have seen reason with it (government) at the period of the financial crisis that bedeviled the economy of the state, following the unholy activities of militants in our creeks.

“As a result of the dwindling fortunes of the state, which virtually brought the monthly Federal Allocation to the state abysmally low, civil servants in their strides saw the need not to bother in 2008 and 2009, when other states of the federation, especially in the Niger Delta, paid their workers Christmas bonus, despite the prevailing circumstances in the region.”