-Pays road sweepers N20,000 per monthly, supervisors N25,000 per monthly
—“We work as elephants, earn as slaves”
By the Guide Newspaper
The All Progressives Congress (APC), led state government of Governor Umo Eno has been caught in a web of breaching labour laws, by using her agency, Akwa Ibom State Environmental Protection and Waste Management Agency (AKSEPWMA), to short change environmental workers in the state, remunerating workers below the approved minimum wage in the country.
The Guide Newspaper correspondent in Uyo, uncovered this development during an investigation carried out during the week in the capital of the oil-rich State, to know about the welfare of environmental workers in Akwa Ibom State.
During the investigation, findings by our correspondent revealed that environmental workers in Akwa Ibom State saddled with the responsibility of sweeping major roads within the capital city, and those who evacuate refuse from various dumpsites within the capital city were placed on a salary scale of twenty thousand naira (N20,000), by Akwa Ibom State Environmental Protection and Waste Management Agency (AKSEPWMA).
Speaking with Guide Newspaper correspondent, one of the environmental workers who preferred to be identified simply as Mrs. Udoinyang a widow with five children lamentated that her salary of N20,000 as a road sweeper can barely feed her family for a week.
Mrs Udo Inyang in an emotion-laden conversation with our correspondent narrated how a good samirantan saved her 10-year- old daughter who was at the verge of dead, by volunteering to foot the hospital bill which she could not afford when her daughter was sick of strange abdominal pains.
Also, another environmental worker, serving in the dumpsites evacuating unit of AKSEPWMA who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity lamented that although refuse evacuators in the Uyo, are engaged in hard labour, in the task of keeping the state clean, their monthly pay can hardly cater for their basic needs.
“We work as elephants and earn as slaves,” the local refuse evacuator who preferred anonymity had lamented during a conversation with the Guide Newspaper correspondent.
The Guide Newspaper reports that despite the poor remuneration of environmental workers in the State, the workers expecially those involved in sweeping major roads in the capital city, wake up as early as 4 a.m to keep the city roads clean.
Reacting to the development, a social commentator and public affairs analyst Barr. Samuel Essien described the poor treatment of environmental workers in the State as a clear demonstration of state government blatant disregard for the principle of dignity of labour.
He alledged that Akwa Ibom State government is weaponizing glaring poverty in the State and capitalizing on the lack of awareness of existing labour laws in the country by this category of workers to exploit the labour force without adequate compensation.
According to him, “This is a clear demonstration of how government weaponize poverty and uses the state of ignorance of this low level workers to exploit them.”
It would be recalled that Senator Adam Oshomole recently raised alarm at the National Assembly during senate plenary that some workers in the country are paid below the approved minimum wage of seventy thousand naira(N70,000) in the country.
Under the extant labour laws in the country, employees remunerating workers below the approved minimum wage threshold constitutes an offense that is punishable by law.
