Workers in the employ of Oyo State Government on Saturday bowed to pressure and shelved an industrial action earlier scheduled to protest the non-implementation of the N18,000 national minimum wage by the state government.
The workers had earlier given the state government till Friday to implement the minimum wage or be ready to face industrial action.
But the decision to shelve the industrial action was taken at a congress organised by the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress in Ibadan, the state capital on Saturday.
Although many workers who spoke at the well-attended congress were favourably disposed to commencing the industrial action on Monday, the state chairman, Mr. Bashir Olanrewaju, prevailed on them to allow further negotiation on the matter.
Olanrewaju said it would be counter-productive if the workers went on strike while still awaiting the payment of their May Salary.
He assured them that the leadership of the congress would not rest on its oars until the government paid the outstanding salary for the month of May while negotiation would continue on the contentious minimum wage.
The NLC boss was joined at the congress by leaders of all affiliated unions in the state.
The administration of former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala had agreed to implement the new minimum wage beginning with the workers’ May salary.
But on assumption of office, Governor Abiola Ajimobi said while his government wished to pay the new minimum wage, he was constrained by several factors which included the fact that the new wage bill exceeded the total monthly revenue of the state.
Ajimobi said the new minimum wage translated to N4.4bn monthly while the total revenue of the state, including Federal Allocation and Internally Generated Revenue, was N4.2bn.
The implication, he added, was that his government would be borrowing N200m monthly to enable it to pay workers’ salaries.
He said apart from borrowing N200m monthly to pay workers’ salaries, his government would also find it difficult to actualise all the lofty programmes which he swore to provide for the people of the state.
He, therefore, appealed to traditional rulers and leaders of thought in the state to intervene in the dispute.
| By OLALEKAN ADETAYO Courtesy Of: Punch |
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