The Anambra State Government has begun enforcing salary deductions for civil servants who failed to report for duty on Mondays, following its earlier warning to end compliance with sit-at-home directives imposed by separatist elements.

The policy, announced in January, introduced a pro-rata payment system under which workers who absented themselves from work on Mondays would forfeit part of their monthly earnings. The state government also declared an official end to sit-at-home observance across the state.

On Monday, the policy took effect, triggering widespread complaints among civil servants after many received alerts showing sharp deductions from their February salaries.

At the Jerome Udoji State Secretariat in Awka, affected workers expressed shock over what they described as excessive and inconsistent salary cuts, some of which they said did not correspond with the number of Mondays they missed.

A civil servant who spoke on condition of anonymity claimed that a worker in his ministry received just ₦100 as February salary after deductions. Another staff member in the Ministry of Information said he earned only ₦3,500 out of an expected salary of over ₦80,000.

“One of my colleagues said ₦10,000 was removed from her salary. The deductions are irregular. Some people who missed work once or twice had huge cuts. There may have been errors in computation,” he said.

Reacting to the complaints, the state Commissioner for Information, Law Mefor, confirmed that the deductions were penalties for failing to work on Mondays.

“The salary cut is a punishment for failure to come to work on Mondays,” Mefor said. “The directive is clear: workers are to clock in at resumption and clock out at close of work on Mondays as evidence of attendance.

“If you came to work but failed to clock in and out, it means there is no proof you were at work, and such absence attracts sanctions,” he added.

The state government has maintained that the measure is necessary to restore full productivity in the civil service and reinforce its stance against sit-at-home disruptions.