The workers in Ogun State have lambasted the executive governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun over what they termed gross neglect and insensitivity to their welfare.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun
According to the speech delivered by the Chairman Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Ogun State Council, Comrade Bunmi Fajobi, it reads… “There are a total 18 months of global deductions outstanding. For the first time in history of Ogun State, Government is owing workers leave allowances for four consecutive years,(2015 partially, 2016,2017 and 2018)”
According to the State TUC chairman, the workers promotion for 2016 and 2017 are already in arrears while that of 2018 will fully mature two months away.
While lamenting the pains of pensioners in the State, Fajobi said; “The Contributory Pension Scheme designed and campaigned for as much better than the Defined Benefit Pension Scheme which have resulted in endless queues and trauma in the name of unending verification for our senior citizens, is now completely comatose.”
“The deductions from the workers’ salaries on the scheme have remained largely unremitted to the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) in the last 90 months”
He further lamented that public servants spends personal incomes to run their offices… “It is no more news that public servants in several offices spend out their meagre partly paid salaries to run their offices due to the inconsistency in the release of monthly running cost.”
“In most of the field offices, public servants levy themselves to pay for electricity bills in other to avoid disconnection, buy papers to generate reports to the headquarters and pay for the production of such reports from open private business centres”
In his own address at the 2018 Workers Day Celebration tagged: “Labour Movement In National Development; Dare To Struggle, Dare To Win”, Comrade Akeem Ambali, the Ogun State Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) said the issue of the remittance of global deduction remains a recurring decimal that is massively the morale of workers.
While appealing to the governor to recall some Labour leaders dismissed by the State Government, Ambali also reiterated the demand by workers on minimum wage of N66,500.00.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun who was represented by His Deputy Chief, Mrs Yetunde Onanuga assured the workers during his speech that his administration would continue to hold workers in high esteem. He also advised the workers to avoid being used by desperate politicians as 2019 general elections is approaching.
– Wale Adewunmi, Ogun State Correspondent