According to him, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a drop in their productivity however the government still went ahead to give them a salary increase.
He argued that if productivity were the measure government used in increasing the salaries like it won’t have materialized.
He said “if productivity were the measure of salary increase, if productivity were to commensurate with salary increase, I don’t think they would have had any salary increase. They would have had even a reduction in their salaries. I am saying that because of Covid, we have not been as productive as we should have”.
Mr Salia further pointed out that with productivity as the yardstick for measuring salary increase he is sure many of them will rather have their salaries slashed for their lack of productivity at their workplaces.
In his attempt to justify why he made such claims against the demonstrating workers, Mr Salia said because of the far reaching effects of COVID-19, none of the workers have been productive enough to merit any salary increase in the country.
Mr Salia was reacting on the heels of the demonstration by public sector workers who were demonstrating for a 25% to 35% raise in their salaries rather than the 4% increase offered by government to the public sector workers in the country, to which they have remonstrated against compared to that of Article 71 office holders.