By Michael Olatunji
The Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) yesterday demanded palliatives for its members, insisting that 95 percent of them, now laid redundant, are informal workers with no salaries.
The Acting General Secretary of the union, Mr Kabiru Ya’u, in a statement issued at the union’s secretariat at Abuja, reiterated the union’s commitment to supporting the Federal Government’s effort to curtail the spread of the deadly Coronavirus in the country.
According to him the union has directed all its members to observe the lockdown, except for some staff in the finance department who will provide skeletal services when needed.
He said: “Only skeletal operations are done in some States where lockdown is not imposed. Interstate operations is mostly down.
“The union will cooperate with government in whatever way possible to eradicate or mitigate the impact of Covid-19 nationwide.
“We are also in need of palliatives from government, especially since 95 per cent of our members are informal workers and do not earn salaries.”
Ya’u said that measures had been taken by the union to curtail spread of the virus and there was no reported case of coronavirus outbreak in any motor park across the country.
He said the union was also working on contingency plans to prepare for any unknown outcome that may arise.