Labour leaders in Ekiti state at the weekend berated Governor Ayodele Fayose for heaping lies on the Unions to court sympathy and whip public sentiments against workers on their ongoing strike.
Rising from an emergency meeting at the Labour House in Egbewa, Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, the Unions, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC), said in a release that: “The ongoing strike is not an ego trip or politically motivated, but about the rights of workers and pensioners who are dying daily out of hunger and frustration.”
Labour Leaders equally berated the governor for deciding to go on strike too, noting, “This (decision) leaves much to be desired”.
The release in response to the governor’s declarations during his monthly media chat, broadcast live on electronic stations in the state, jointly signed by Paul Olayemi (NLC), John Adebayo (TUC) and Blessing Oladele (JNC), blamed the governor for mentioning just four of the ten demands earlier presented to him by the Unions, while, according to them, no solutions were given to even the four.
They said contrary to common statement by the governor of incorporating representatives of labour Unions in the state’s monthly cash allocation meetings, “The meeting is only a briefing and not a cash allocation meeting. So, the idea of labour leaders sharing monthly cash allocation and the governor approving does not arise. There has never been any advice or suggestion given to government by the organised labour at this forum that has ever been taken.”
They disagreed there was ever a time they reached accords with the government to pay only net salary which would exclude cooperative deductions, bank loans and union dues, expressing regrets that the governor himself had condemned net payment when he came on board and during his election campaigns which he had then dismissed same as a ‘fraud’.
The Organised Labour also expressed shock over the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) figures reeled out by the governor which overshot and were entirely contrary to that as ever declared by the Accountant General at any of their meetings.
According to them, while the Accountant General had given figures which ranged between only N150m and N200m, except that of N268m for April, the highest so declared by him, the governor during the media chat gave N267m for Sept. 2015; N252m for Oct. 2015; N195m for Nov. 2015; and N181m for Dec 2015.
They added that for Jan, Feb and March, the acruals, according to the governor, were N389m, N381m, and
N302m respectively, adding, “Labour was embarrassed to hear the monthly IGR read on air by His Excellency.”
The leadership of the Unions further berated the governor for his planned decision to pay only the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), a section of workers in the state, which had decided to pull out of the ongoing strike action, urging the entire workforce to remain in their various houses until otherwise directed by their respective unions.
Their words: “On the issue of outstanding salary, it is common knowledge that all workers have performed their duties effieciently and effectively for the period of January to May 2016 and hence they deserve their paywithout further delay. Therefore, contrary to government decision to pay the sector that opted out of current struggle is tantamount to divide and rule tactics usually employed by government in situations like this.”
The letter reads: “It should be noted that Labour has neither suspended nor call off the ongoing industrial action in the state, hence we are usinf this medium to implore the entire workers of all categories in all sectors to stay at home and observe the strike action until the leadership of organised Labour gives further directives.”
