The Anambra State Government has commenced the deduction of salaries of civil servants who failed to report to work on Mondays previously observed as sit-at-home days.
The move followed the state’s decision to enforce pro-rata salary payments as part of efforts to end the prolonged Monday shutdown linked to the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Beginning from February 2026, workers’ salaries are being calculated based on attendance, with particular focus on Mondays. The government had earlier directed civil servants to resume full duties on all working days or face salary adjustments.
However, the policy has sparked complaints from affected workers, who described the deductions as excessive and poorly computed.
At the Jerome Udoji State Secretariat in Awka, several workers expressed shock after receiving their February salary alerts with significant reductions. Some claimed the deductions did not correspond with the number of Mondays they missed.
A worker who spoke anonymously disclosed that a colleague in his ministry received only ₦10,000 as salary for the month. Another worker from the Ministry of Information said his pay dropped drastically despite earning over ₦80,000 monthly.
He said, “One of my colleagues said she received her salary with N10,000 deducted.
“The cuts are irregular, but I think there were errors in the computation because some people who missed work only once or twice had substantial deductions from their salaries.”
Another affected staff member described the development as unfair and confusing.
He said, “I am surprised to see huge deductions when I received the alert for my February salary. Over N80,000 was deducted from my salary for missing work for two Mondays. I think it was miscalculated, as two Mondays were not supposed to be up to that amount.”
Defending the action, the Commissioner for Information, Law Mefor, confirmed that the salary cuts were disciplinary measures for workers who failed to comply with the directive to report to work on Mondays.
He explained that attendance was verified through a clock-in and clock-out system.
Mefor said, “The salary cut is a punishment for failure to come to work on Mondays. The instruction was that when you come to work on Mondays, you clock in, and at the close of work, you clock out. That is to show that you came to work.
“But, if you came to work on Mondays, but you didn’t clock in, and didn’t clock out, it means that you didn’t come to work because there is no evidence to show that you came to work.”
The state government maintained that the policy is necessary to restore productivity and put an end to the culture of enforced sit-at-home in the state.
