The Ogun state Government has reached a lasting solution and agreement with the labour leaders in the state which has buried the hatchet existing between both parties.
The controversy which started as a result of matters relating to workers’ cooperative deductions, unremitted contributory pension scheme and gratuity has now been resolved following a meeting held with the State Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Akeem Ambali, and the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JNC), Abiodun Olakanmi.
Speaking at the end of the meeting held at the Governor’s office, the Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun said; “We have seen the financial position of our state and it is not just Ogun State. The economy is down. For example this month, the allocation that came to the state is almost N1 billion and our commitment, the one that we can safely say that ‘this is just for personnel’ either for civil service, public service, house of assembly and our workers, is about N8.4 billion and there are some we must do which put the money at over N9 billion monthly.
“This month alone, all that we were given as a state is over about N1 billion and the local government got about N1.4 billion. Why I speak on local government all of the time is because they don’t have anywhere else to go. If the total that was given to local governments this month is about N1.4 billion, the primary teachers’ salary if we have to pay is about N2 billion. That means, there is a problem and of course and we are not magicians.”
The NLC Chairman, added that; “We had a very instructive meeting and I want to commend the government. For the first time, we were down to earth with one another and facts were presented. We looked at it and the labour also presented some credible facts to the government and at the end of the day, we agreed that government should go back and do some assignment while labour should also do its own part.”
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