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Oyo State government declares workers’ strike illegal

By Muyiwa Adeyemi, Head, South West Bureau, Ibadan
25 January 2018   |   4:10 am
Oyo State government has declared the three-day warning strike by its workers as illegal.

Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State

Oyo State government has declared the three-day warning strike by its workers as illegal.

A statement by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Olalekan Alli, threatened to apply the no-work-no pay rule against them.

The government enjoined the workers to resume work immediately.

The SSG dismissed the allegation by the labour leaders that the state government owed the retired primary school teachers pensions and gratuities of over 56 months.

The workers had accused the government of failing to address the 13- week old strike by tertiary institutions in the state.

They also condemned the sack of 256 workers at the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, as well as the failure to address the agitations by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU).

Explaining government position, the SSG said: “By the laws setting up the tertiary institutions, government was not responsible for the payment of their workers’ salaries.

“In order to assist them, government is only obliged to give the institutions subventions, which they could deploy in any area that their governing councils decide.

“The recent forensic audit reports on the tertiary institutions revealed a great deal of shortcomings. Among these were inefficiency, financial leakages and poor management.

Alli said the audit report also declared some of the institutions as unsustainable and were recommended for closure.

He added that new governing councils had been reconstituted to review the status of the affected institutions.

He said: “Contrary to the allegations by the labour union, government on assumption of office in 2011, inherited over N4 billion local government pension arrears.”

He explained that so far, it had expended over N11billion on the pensions and gratuities of the retired primary school teachers.

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