Oyo labour suspends 7-week strike after agreement with govt

Ibadan—THE seven- week face off between Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and workers in the state has finally come to an end as the strike embarked upon by the latter has been suspended.

The suspension  was announced by the State Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Waheed Olojede after several meetings between the two feuding parties.

This is as the state government and the state’s labour congress have reached a joint agreement over payment of salaries to workers in the state.

The agreement was reached late Monday night but was released yesterday by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Ishmael Olalekan Alli at the state’s secretariat in Ibadan.

Workers in the state had been on strike for the past 7 weeks over their unpaid seven months salary and the proposal of the state government to involve private partners in the running of 31 out of 631 public secondary schools in the state.

Alli said the state had received the sum of 3.4956 billion naira from the Federal Government as allocation and budget support facility which would be used to pay  one month salary of workers in the state.

He added that in the next two weeks, another one month salary would be paid to the workers.

The SSG said, that the total amount received from the Federation Account for the month of June, 2016 was 2.105 billion naira and that an additional sum of 1.39 billion naira, being the first tranche of the budget support facility, was equally received from the Federal Government, bringing the available sum to N3.495 billion in the government coffers that could immediately be utilised for salaries, wages and pensions of the state workforce.

“The foregoing, inadequacy has constrained the state government to use the Federal Allocation for two months, and sometimes three, to meet one month obligation.”

“Although there was a demand for the payment of all outstanding salaries and pensions,the reality is that as at the time the strike commenced,the Oyo State Government was not in financial position to pay even one month salary neither could the realities support the demand of the payment of all outstanding salaries and pensions,” he stated.