In mid April, the civil servants of Ebonyi State won a major victory against the “no work – no pay” policy. This was after a successful one month strike. The State Government agreed to pay, “within 48 hours” of signing the agreement, the salaries owed to all affected civil servants from a strike held in September 2011.
The action of the State at that time meant that Ebonyi civil servants were then only ones that did not join the general strike and uprising of January 2012. It was only in the South Eastern state of Ebonyi that workers in the public sector dejectedly went to work even as private sector employees in the state joined the strike.
In September 2011, public sector workers in Ebonyi State held a strike over the Civil/Public Service Salary Structure. At the end of the strike the Governor insisted on implementing the “no work – no pay” policy and the workers did not receive their pay until recently.
But from Tuesday, 10 March 2015, the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council called an indefinite strike for all civil/public service workers in Ebonyi State, local government employees and teachers. As a result of the workers unity and intransigence they were eventually successful and on 11April the strike was suspended. As well as paying all the salaries for the September 2011 strike, the State Government also agreed to implement the revised salary structure and regularize promotions for the last four years.
