Judex OKoro, Calabar
Lawyers, under the aegis of Law Officers’ Association of Nigeria (LOAN), Cross River branch, have shut courts in in the state, demanding immediate implementation of harmonised salary.
The lawyers, working in the state Ministry of Justice, are piqued that the Cross River government has failed to implement the harmonised salary between those of them at the Ministry of Justice and their colleagues who were appointed magistrates from the rank.
This is the second time in two years that lawyers in state employ would embark on strike to press home their demands.
On November 1, 2016, the association had written a letter to the Head of Service (HoS), Mr. Ekpenyong Henshaw, and, subsequently, embarked on strike demanding harmonised scheme of service for law officers in the ministry.
And, after series of attempts to make government see reasons with them to no avail, they, again, decided to down tools.
Speaking to newsmen at the Governor’s Office in Calabar, yesterday, the LOAN Chairman of the state chapter, Mr. Eneji Amajama, said they decided to embark on industrial action to agitate for welfare and press for parity between law officers and the magistracy.
Amajama said: “The governor came to the Ministry of Justice, sometime, in May, to commission our library and agreed that the harmonisation would be implemented and, also, made provision that more law officers should be recruited.
“Since then, more law officers have been recruited; but, the implementation of the harmonisation policy has not been done. We embarked on this action in November 2016, and they pleaded with us to suspend the action so it can be captured in the 2017 budget. When we wrote to the Attorney General, Joe Abang, to remind him, he treated us with disdain and never allowed the governor to see our document.
“When we gave them 21 days notice to embark on this protest, they treated it with disdain. And we gave them another seven days notice, they never did anything. That is why we said, ‘let us move to the governor to tell him there is a policy on ground.”
Reacting, the government threatened to implement no-work-no-pay policy if the lawyers go on with the strike.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Labour Matters, Effiong Ita Umo, said government has approved their demands, but, has not implemented the harmonisation of their salaries with that of judicial officers in the magistrate cadre.
This issue is in the 2018 budget and presently being handled by the HoS and the Accountant General of the state.
The special adviser, who claimed the association is not part of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) and, therefore, cannot declare a strike against the government who has performed creditably, urged the public and the service to ignore anybody purporting to be in support of the group.