To protest the non-payment of salary deductions, arrears, and full salary, workers and pensioners in Oyo State on Monday blocked the entrance to the Oyo State Secretariat at Agodi, Ibadan.
Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), and Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) as well as affiliates of these organizations make up the demonstrators.
They asked that Governor Seyi Makinde personally address them over concerns involving state employees.
In addition, the demonstrators requested that workers receive palliative care, that the pension system be reviewed upward, that leave bonuses and gratuities start to be paid in 2021, that promotion letters be made public, and that the ban on promotions for the years 2021 and 2022 be lifted.
Prince Dotun Oyelade, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, responded to the situation by stating that the state government only owed three months’ worth of deductions rather than six months’ worth, which he said was insignificant in comparison to the salary deductions owing by other states.
“Many states are still having difficulty paying the old wage,” Oyelade added, referring to the execution of the N30,000 minimum wage that the Oyo State Government began three years ago.
“For the record, Oyo State receives a monthly federal grant of N5 billion while paying N7.3 billion in salary. The state government is confident that the NLC will come to the negotiating table and work with the government to chart a realistic course in balancing the welfare of the workers, to which the government is obviously committed, and the unpleasant economic indices that stare all of us in the face. As a result, all N2.8bn collected as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is literally ploughed back to service salaries.
Despite difficulties in paying salary, he continued, almost 2,000 government servants had received promotions, and nearly 1,000 others had switched to regular service.