Osun,Ogun Workers Protest Non Payment Of 5 Months Salary

Activities at the Ogun State government secretariat were paralysed on Tuesday, due to the commencement of a three-day warning strike by the Joint Negotiation Council (JNC) over unpaid five months deductions from the workers salaries.
During a visit to the secretariat, it was observed that majority of the workers complied with the directive, by staying away from work.
Also, pupils and students of public primary and secondary schools in Abeokuta were seen returning home.
Addressing newsmen, the secretary of the JNC, Comrade Modiu Bello, said the essence of the strike was to press home their demands over alleged inability of the government to pay the deducted pension and cooperative deductions of workers.
Bello, flanked by other members of the council, said that the state government under the administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun owed workers five months cooperative deductions.
He said that the state government had denied workers in the state of their rights to withdraw the money they saved for their welfare purposes.
The union leader added that government reneged on the agreement reached with labour leaders on February 20, where it was agreed that government should use the February salaries to pay the four months outstanding cooperative deductions.
Bello said,”The essence of this strike is to let the government know the need why it has to pay all deducted pensions and cooperative deductions of workers which is now five months. Government did not pay these deductions into the cooperative accounts.
However, the state Head of Service, Mrs Modupe Adekunle, who spoke with newsmen, said the strike came as a surprise, insisting that government was not duly notified.
She said that the inability of the state government to pay the deductions was as a result of fall in federal allocation to the state.
Adekunle gave an assurance that government would pay the deductions before the end of the week.
Meanwhile, the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Comrade Dare Ilekoya, directed all teachers in the state to return to classes, saying that the union is not part of the JNC.
He explained that if the Nigeria Labour Congress had given the directive, the union would have joined the strike.
In a related development, commercial activities were grounded to a halt on Tuesday in Osogbo, capital of Osun State, as civil servants stormed major streets in a public protest against the alleged non payment of five months salaries by the state government.
The development, which culminated in a traffic gridlock, caused hardship for commuters as many of them were stranded in bus stops, waiting endlessly for commercial buses, whose operations were disrupted by the protest.
Led by the chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state, Comrade Olatunji Akinyemi, the workers marched through the Osogbo/Gbongan Road chanting anti-government songs.
Aside the alleged non payment of five months salaries, the aggrieved workers also lamented the failure of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led administration to remit pension deducted from their previous salaries to various retirement savings accounts.
They accused the governor of expending the state’s resources on campaigns of the All Progressives Congress (APC) while workers were subjected to sufferings and deprivation.