•Says we’re paid N950 per day
CONSTRUCTION workers engaged on the Apapa-Ibadan railway project have lamented the poor salary being paid to them by the contractor, China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC).
According to some of the workers engaged in the Apapa area, who claimed to be graduates, they are paid as low as N950 per day. When computed monthly on the basis of 22 working days per month, the salary amounts to N20,900 per month, which is 30.3 per cent lower than the approved national minimum wage of N30,000 per month.
“By monthly salary calculation, per day I’m entitled to N950 per day, after which I would have worked from morning till 3pm. Meanwhile, my family members are at home waiting for me to come with a bountiful salary but to appear almost without cash after the whole month.
“This is because everything consumed the whole month would have been bought on credit. Upon all these, we don’t have any other options than to stay and keep on working,” lamented one of the workers, who pleaded anonymity.
Some others said they are paid N40,000 per month, despite the enormous demand of the job. “We are just managing the salary; there is no comparison between the work we do on a daily basis and the salary we get, considering its tediousness.
“Even graduates among us collect as low as N40,000 per month. We don’t have any other option than to do this,” another worker also lamented.
All efforts made to get the railway project contractor, CCECC failed, as they declined comments.
