OYO STATE – SPN DEMANDS IMMEDIATE PAYMENT OF ALL UNREMITTED WORKERS SALARY DEDUCTIONS BY MAKINDE-LED GOVERNMENT
State NLC leadership should back the ultimatum it has declared with preparation for a mass action
The Socialist Party of Nigeria, SPN, Oyo State Chapter welcomes the decision of the Oyo state leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, to give the state government under the leadership of Engr Seyi Makinde an ultimatum over the non-remittance of workers’ salary deductions and non-payment of some entitlements that directly affect workers’ welfare in the state.
The workers’ entitlements that have reportedly suffered a long denial under the Makinde-led government include leave bonus and gratuities for retirees. Likewise is the continuous refusal to effect a review of the state pension and workers’ promotions for the 2022 and 2023. According to media reports, the last workers promotion was effected in 2021 for which even none of the beneficiaries has been issued a letter to that effect, up till this moment.
SPN condemns the refusal of Makinde-led government to pay deductions made from workers salary from January 2023 up till this moment as well as the denial of all of the other aforementioned workers’ entitlements. It is indeed a shameful and unhealthy practice for a state government to deduct a certain proportion of workers monthly salaries without evidence for the remittance of same for the purpose for which the deductions were authorised by the individual worker.
The implication of this practice which is more or less like a broad day robbery is that the state government has not been paying workers in the state their full monthly salaries for over half of a year now. This is an indictment on the integrity of the regime and also a mockery of its so called achievements of prompt payment of salary on the 25th of every month.
It is in the light of this that we support the NLC’s ultimatum and urge the leadership to convene the congress of mass of workers in the State to discuss the action to take after the expiration of the ultimatum should government fail to meet their demands. This will not only help to mobilise the rank and file of workers in the state for an active participation in the planned action but will also create an avenue for a discussion to secure a democratic agreement over how best to prosecute the action.
On a final note, the callous action of short-changing workers by the non-remittance of those deductions at the expense of welfare of workers further underscores why the state leadership of both NLC and TUC must end their continuous illusion in the Makinde-led government. Makinde-led regime has proved that, like its predecessors, is never a sincere friend of labour. As far as we are concerned only a government of workers and the poor run on the basis of socialist programmes that can ensure that the resource of the state is mobilised and utilised to satisfy the needs and aspiration of mass of the working people across the state
Ayodeji Adigun
SPN State Secretary
E-mail: s[email protected]