The Anambra State Government has begun deducting salaries of civil servants who failed to report to work on Mondays previously observed as sit-at-home days.
The policy followed the state’s decision to enforce pro-rata salary payments as part of measures to end the long-running Monday shutdown linked to the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
From February 2026, workers’ salaries are now calculated based on attendance, with emphasis on Mondays.
The government had earlier announced that civil servants must resume full duties on all working days or face salary adjustments.
However, the policy has triggered complaints from affected workers who said the deductions were excessive and poorly calculated.
At the Jerome Udoji State Secretariat in Awka, several workers expressed shock after receiving February salary alerts with major reductions.
Some said the cuts did not match the number of Mondays they missed.
A worker who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed that a colleague in his ministry received just ₦10,000 as salary for the month.
Another worker from the Ministry of Information said his pay dropped sharply 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 situation 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.”
The state government has defended the action.
Speaking on the matter, the Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, confirmed that the salary cuts were disciplinary measures for workers who failed to comply with the directive to report on Mondays.
He explained that attendance was determined using 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 government maintains that the policy is necessary to restore productivity and end the culture of enforced sit-at-home across the state.