The Anambra State Government has slashed the February salaries of workers who failed to report for work on Mondays, which were earlier declared sit-at-home days by the Indigenous People of Biafra.
It was earlier reported that the state government has announced the commencement of pro-rata salary payments for workers across the state as part of efforts to end the Monday sit-at-home, saying that effective February 2026, civil servants’ salaries will be paid according to pro-rata.
The state government also used the opportunity to announce an end to the sit-at-home protest.
However, it was a tale of woe for some of the workers as they received the alerts for the February salaries with significant deductions and a pay cut.
Although at the Jerome Udoji State Secretariat in Awka, the state capital, some workers who spoke to journalists on Tuesday complained that the deductions from their salaries did not correspond with the number of Mondays they failed to report to work.
One worker, who requested anonymity for fear of being victimised, said a colleague in his ministry received only N10,000 as payment for February after the deductions.
Another staff member, from the Ministry of Information, lamented that out of his total salary of over N80,000, he received just N3,500.
He said, “One of my colleagues said she received her salary with N10,000 deducted.
“The cuts are irregular, but I think there were errors in the computation because some people who missed work only once or twice had substantial deductions from their salaries.”
Another affected worker said, “I am surprised to see huge deductions when I received the alert for my February salary. Over N80,000 was deducted from my salary for missing work for two Mondays. I think it was miscalculated, as two Mondays were not supposed to be up to that amount.”
When contacted on the development on Tuesday, the state Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, confirmed to journalists that the deductions were punishment for failure to come to work on Mondays.
Mefor said, “The salary cut is a punishment for failure to come to work on Mondays. The instruction was that when you come to work on Mondays, you clock in, and at the close of work, you clock out. That is to show that you came to work.
“But, if you came to work on Mondays, but you didn’t clock in, and didn’t clock out, it means that you didn’t come to work because there is no evidence to show that you came to work.”
