Street sweepers in Edo State, have protested against the payment of N17,820 as their salary by the State waste management board.
The women sweepers, took the protest to the secretariat of the Edo chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Monday to express their grievances.
The protesters, in their uniforms, carried placards with inscriptions such as “We need increment in our salary”, “We are tired of N17,820” among others.
Glory Efosa, speaking on behalf of her colleagues, said they had been receiving the amount for the past six years.
According to her, with the current economic realities, they can no longer cope with such a meagre salary,
“They pay us N18,000 but when they deduct the tax, we will be left with N17,820. We have complained and written several letters calling for increment but to no avail.
“We started receiving this amount as salary during the administration of Gov. Adams Oshiomhole and we are still being paid the same salary.
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“Anytime we go on protest, the general manager would say we don’t have employment letters.
“They would tell us that Governor Godwin Obaseki said he didn’t recognise us as working with the government, but if they want to do anything in Benin and they want to make the city look beautiful, they will come to call us.
“For instance, after finishing our own task on Saturday, they asked us to go to New Benin and clean it up and we went,” she said.
“The general manager was present during the cleaning and when we wanted to bring the matter up, we were asked to hold on and that was how we abandoned the matter.
“Now, we are having a president who has removed fuel subsidy and things are now very expensive; that money cannot take us anywhere.
“How do they want us to pay our children’s school fees and our house rent? How do they want us to feed ourselves and our families?” Efosa queried.
While commending the governor for increasing the minimum wage, Efosa said their own salaries should also be increased to enhance their survival.
Information Nigeria reports that in May 2022, Governor Godwin Obaseki approved N40,000 as the minimum wage for workers in the State.
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