Ondo Workers to Begin Strike on Tuesday

• Ondo Workers to Begin Strike on Tuesday

Civil servants in Ondo State have threatened to embark on industrial action on Tuesday if the state government failed to pay the backlog of their salary arrears.

The workers through the organised labour unions in the state is asking Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to pay the backlog from the N20 billion Paris Club refund the state received from the Federal Government recently.

The request was contained in a letter to the governor dated November 9, 2018.

In the letter signed by state chairmen of the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress and the Joint Negotiating Council, Tayo Ogunleye; Soladoye Ekundayo and Abel Oloniyo, the workers accused the governor of not consulting the labour unions on the release of the Paris Club refund as both parties has earlier agreed.

The letter read in part, “We want to draw the attention of His Excellency to the recommendations of a committee on payment of six months arrears of salary to Ondo State workers set up by the state government that was submitted to Your Excellency in May 2017.”

“We also hold that the said agreement subsists between labour and the government of Ondo State irrespective of who mounts the mantle of leadership particularly when the state Head of Service remains the signatory to both the agreement and the committee report.”

“In view of the above, we call on the government to please pay in line with our agreement as analysed in our letter under reference on or before 12 noon Tuesday, November 13, 2018.”

This was coming a week after organised labour threatened the Federal Government with similar strike following the refusal of the government to accept N30,000 as the new national minimum wage.

However, Mr Yemi Olowolabi, the Commissioner for Information Ondo state, said the matter would be resolved soon.