Ogun, Osun workers protest against non-payment of salaries

WORKERS in Osun and Ogun States Tuesday protested non-payment of their salaries by the two All Progressives Congress (APC)-governed states.

Under the aegis of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the workers in Osun armed with placards bearing different inscriptions, marched through the state capital, Oshogbo, demanding payment of the salary arrears and other deductions allegedly made by the government without further delay to stem untold hardship they are going through.

However, the state government denied the salary arrears owed workers was up to five months.

In Ogun, the workers yesterday began a three-day warning strike, which paralyzed all activities at the State Secretariat, government parastatals as well as public secondary and primary schools.

The aggrieved workers are asking the government to pay them alleged four months “unremitted deductions” by the government from their salaries.

At the Ogun State Secretariat, Oke Mosan, yesterday the entire complex was a ghost of it’s usual self, as workers shun offices. However, some key offices were opened with their officers in their Offices.

Chairman, Senior Staff Association in Osun state, Comrade Olatunji Akinyemi narrated the ordeal workers in the state are going through due to irregular payment of salary adding that “one of the workers died about two weeks ago because he could not afford to buy just an inhaler, this is a pathetic situation we are facing here in Osun.”

Chief of Staff {CoS} to the state governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola however, revealed, “The governor has signed the remaining months of the salary arrears owed the entire workers in the state.”

Oyetola debunked the claim by the workers that government owes them five months salary arrears.

He said, “As at now, we have paid up to the month of January this year and on or before the end of the week, the remaining salaries would definitely be paid to the workers without any delay, so we don’t just sit down here doing nothing as we know and appreciate their plight.”

Ogun State chapter of the NUT as well as the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) yesterday differed on the strike.

While the NUT distanced itself from the strike, ASUSS leadership maintained that all its members should observe strike, which enters the second day today (Wednesday).

Secretary of the National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSC), Comrade Modiu Bello had addressed a press conference last Friday in Abeokuta and accused the State government, among others of refusing to “remit all deductions including deductions from cooperatives, bank loans as well as that of the contributory pension deductions to the appropriate banks.”

Speaking with journalists yesterday in Abeokuta, the NUT state chairman, Comrade Dare Ilekoya insisted that teachers across the state are not participating in the strike, stressing, “NUT is never a member of the JNC.”