Non-indigene staff of the Taraba Publishing Company Limited, have dragged the company to the Jos Division of th National Industrial Court over 77 months salary arrears totaling N73.3m
In their statement of claim, the workers alleged that 18 of them who are not from Taraba state were denied salaries since the company stopped operation in 2014 on the grounds that they are not indigenes of the state.
Joint as defendants in the suit are the state governor (1st defendant), the Taraba State Government (2nd defendant), Attorney General of the state (3rd defendant), the State Commissioner of Information (4th defendant) and the Taraba Publishing Company Limited (5th defendant).
In a statement of claim one of the plaintiffs, Hosea Yunana, said the defendant, unlawfully withheld his salary and that of his colleagues who are co-claimants in the suit, “for 77 months from September 2014 to this very day while I still remain in the service of the 5th defendant.”
He stated that “the defendants’ discrimination against me and my colleagues/co-claimants in the suit on the basis of our states of origin in refusing to redeploy us in its service and this contravened our right to freedom from discrimination as protected by Section 42 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That in the above letter, the managing consultant/CEO has confirmed that he has intimated the 1st defendant, the Executive Governor of Taraba State, on our issues and complaint and that the governor initiated some steps to address them but it ends there.
“That, through our solicitor, M.Y. Saleh, SAN, we wrote various letters of demand dated 26 January, 2021 and addressed accordingly to the executive governor of Taraba State, the Secretary to the Taraba State Government, the attorney-general and honourable commissioner of justice of Taraba State and the honourable commissioner of information and reorientation of Taraba State, and the managing consultant and chief executive officer of Taraba Publishing Company Limited respectively”.
Counsel to the plaintiffs, M.Y. Saleh (SAN), also maintained that the refusal of the defendants to pay the salaries and entitlements of the claimants is unlawful.
