Passengers seek better pay for Abuja-Kaduna train workers

Passengers have called for upward review of salary of workers on the Abuja - Kaduna train service.

The passengers told Daily Trust that poor welfare package was responsible for ticket racketeering.

A staff of the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority (FCDA), Garba Jibril said “The salary of the train workers is very poor, no off days, no free time and they work for over 12 hours in a day. The review of the package will help to curb all forms of corruption among the staff.”

Jibril, who said he has been patronizing the train since 2016 when it was launched, said “There is improvement in ticketing. People can confidently queue and get tickets. The introduction of more coaches has helped to reduce the problems being faced.”

Another passenger, Sani Rabiu said: “With little issue, you will see that the staff would be provoked because they are angry.”

A train worker said they earn between N18,000 to N40,000 and work for 12 hours a day.

“Our salary is very small because allowances like that of weekend have been removed. It was removed because there was no much activity in the NRC but now that we are in the standard gauge nothing has changed.

“For instance, a staff on level 6 (3) earns less than N28,000, level 7 (1) N38,000, and level 8 (1) N42,000. We work every day, including Saturdays and Sundays. They should pay us allowance for weekend. Our salary is poor. The last time we had salary increment was during late president Yar’adua,” he said.