Workers of the Kano State Water Board have embarked on an indefinite strike over the failure to implement the newly approved minimum wage in the agency.
The Chairman of the Kano State Water Board Workers Union, Comrade Najib Abdussalam, disclosed this in an interview with Nigerian Tracker.
Comrade Najib stated that while all other government agencies in the state had adopted the new minimum wage, the Kano State Water Board was yet to comply.
This prompted the workers to initiate the "no retreat, no surrender" industrial action.
He explained that an agreement was earlier reached with the Managing Director of the Board, Engineer Ahmad Garba Bichi, to delay the payment of the new wage until December 20.
However, workers were disappointed to receive salaries calculated on the old pay scale.
When asked about the revenue-generating status of the Water Board, Najib noted that there had been no review of water tariffs.
He added that the government could have supported the agency to meet its obligations while tariff reviews are being considered, but no such intervention was made.
The union leader further emphasized that relying on internally generated revenue for salary payments is unrealistic, given that many residents of Kano do not utilize water services provided by the board.
