Taraba government on Friday said the shortfall in revenue allocation and the need to pay salaries as at when due were reasons the state government was owing retirees N11 billion gratuity.
The stateโs Head of Civil Service, Mr Simon Angyo disclosed this at the state accountability programme โFace the Pressโ, organised by the Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Darius Ishaku on Public Affairs.
He explained that though the government was promptly paying pension, salaries and other entitlements of workers and retirees, the backlog of gratuity would be cleared as soon as the stateโs economy improved.
Angyo expressed delight over the understanding reached between workers of the state owned University, Polytechnic, School of Nursing, and College of Education, who had earlier embarked on strike over unresolved issues with the unions.
He said that government had engaged the respective labour unions into negotiations that yielded fruits, leading to the suspension of the strikes.
โLet me inform you that as we speak, no union is on strike in the state. All the civil servants in the state who were on strike have called off the strikes.
โWe have engaged the umbrella union body for our Polytechnic, College of Education, School of Nursing and the Academic Staff Union of University and have reached a point where all the groups have agreed to call off the strikes.
โThis goes to show the commitment of the state government towards the well being of its workers.โ
