Labour leaders in Osun State on Monday
suspended the strike action embarked upon by workers in the state over
the non-payment of their salaries by the state government.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour
Congress in the state, Mr. Jacob Adekomi, who announced to journalists
that the strike had been suspended, said the decision was taken after
the government and labour representatives had signed a Memorandum of
Understanding on the issue.
The
NLC chairman said workers agreed to suspend the strike which started on
May 26 because the state government would begin payment of January and
February 2015 salaries as from Monday (yesterday) while the remaining
salaries would be paid with the bailout still being expected from the
Federal Government.
A copy of the MoU made available to
journalists showed that the Head of Service, Mr. Sunday Owoeye, led the
permanent secretaries of the Ministries of Justice, Finance and Human
Resources and Capacity Building/Public Service to sign the document.
The NLC chairman; Secretary, Rufus
Adeyemi, Chairman, Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, Bayo
Adejumo and Secretary JPSNC, Richard Oyegbami, signed the documents on
behalf of the labour unions.
The MoU read, “Both parties, therefore,
agreed to enter into this Memorandum of Understanding in anticipation of
the bailout expected from the Federal Government on the issue of
settlement of salary arrears and to show the state government’s
commitment to the welfare of its workforce, having in mind the need to
collect data towards the completion of the physical verification
exercise of workers and retirees in the public service.
“The labour unions will suspend the
ongoing strike action on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding to
allow all public service personnel audit and verification exercise as
well as auditing of local government staff/primary school teachers and
retires take place.”
The document stated that the screening
exercise was not meant to witch-hunt or retrench any worker, adding that
the exercise would enable the government to know the actual number of
workers in the employment of the state.
They added that the state would also
know the actual wage bill of workers and the number of pensioners and
the amount to be spent to defray the bills.
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