Street sweepers in Calabar show dissatisfaction over unpaid salaries

ayodele johnson

June 18, 2016 1:15 AM

The protesters, comprising mainly of women, refused the authority's proposition to pay them one month out of their five-month salary.

Fire made the protesters.

On Monday, June13, 2016, street sweepers in the urban city of Calabar, carried out a protest at the head office of the Calabar Urban Development Authority, over unpaid salaries.

According to Punch, the protesters, mostly made up of women, refused the CUDA’s attempt to pay them for one month out of the five month salary.

Lucy James, one of the sweepers affected said that the body responsible for their employment had been owing them for five months.

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She also stated that matters grew worse when it laid off some of her colleagues.

James said, “We have not been paid in the last five months when they engaged our services. They are fond of doing this.”

“Each time our salaries accumulate, they will lay us off without payment. They called us here for payment for one month salary. We will not accept it.”

“They ordered police to disperse us with teargas but we have resisted it. If they want to lay us off, they should first pay what they owe us.”

“They have laid some of our colleagues off and about four of them have died without being paid. We cannot give the government ultimatum, but we are appealing that they pay us our salaries.”

Mr. Joe-Mary Eteng, the Executive Secretary of CUDA, attributed the delay in salary to a backlog of money owed to previous contractors handling various aspects of the agency’s project.

He however appealed to the protesters to consider collecting the one-month salary, with the promise that the rest will be paid as soon as possible.

“Today, we brought one month salary and appealed that subsequent ones would be paid soon, but they rejected it.”

“This is actually a backlog of money owed previous contractors whose contracts were terminated when Governor Ben Ayade came in. Nobody is saying that they will not be paid,”

This has however not swayed the protesters, who are clearly not impressed by the situation of things.

ayodele johnson