From George Onyejiuwa Imo Owerri
Angry staff of the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC) on Tuesday locked up up the secretariat over unpaid salaries.
This is even as the workers prevented the Managing Director of the Commission, Chief Charles Orie into the premises of the secretariat.
Apart from the unpaid salaries, the angry workers also protested slash in their salaries and vowed to ground the secretariat until the situation is remedied.
The workers who are clutching placards with various inscriptions to underline their demands, the workers vowed not to return to work or allow anyone access into the secretariat unit the government attended their welfares.
ISOPADEC union chairman, Chinedu Awuzie, disclosed that their April and May, 2020 salaries was yet to be paid.
He said that the government and the corporation’s management had failed to listen to their demands.
According to the Union Chairman, ” government unlawfully took over the payment of our salaries, slashing same to 20% which has subjected the oil workers to hardship, suffering and death.
“The law that established ISOPADEC did not make them part of Imo Civil Service, to the effect that ISOPADEC workers are not pensionable, and therefore the government’s decision to pay them as such is questionable.”
Responding, the MD, Charles Orie, said the problems enumerated by the workers predated his appointment as as the corporation’s boss.
He assured that their grievances would be addressed.
Orie asked the workers to return to work, and be law abiding as they press home their demands, saying that the governor, Hope Uzodinma, would make them smile.