Osogbo—Osun State workers yesterday ended their six weeks strike by signing a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the state government to put an end to the industrial action.
Labour leaders at the end of the meeting with government representatives at the Governor’s Office in Osogbo decided to end its strike and called on civil servants in the state to resume work today.
But Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State-owned tertiary institutions, CASUOSTI dissociated itself from the call-off by the NLC and the TUC, saying they are not part of the decision.
The union, in a statement in Osogbo, by its Secretary, Comrade Olusegun Lana maintained that they would continue with the strike as the problem of alleged mismanagement of their contributory pension scheme and deductions from their salaries were not resolved.
The state government reportedly commenced the payment of backlog of workers’ salaries yesterday, starting with January and February, 2015 for state workers and March and April, 2015 for Local Government counterparts.
Other ongoing payments included that of primary school teachers, balance of pensions for state government for November 2014, outstanding pensions for January-February, 2015 for Retired Primary School Teachers and March, 2015 Pensions for Retired Local Government Staff.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the State government, the Joint Public Service Negotiating Councils (JPSNC), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), of Osun.
Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Jacob Adekomi, who spoke on behalf of other labour leaders pointed out that labour, in ending the strike considered the parlous financial situation of the state arising from decline in monthly Federal Allocations and dwindling Internally Generated Revenue, IGR which originally led to non-payment of six months’ salaries.
The NLC chairman added that government and labour therefore, agreed to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding MOU in anticipation of the various efforts to be put in place to end the delay in payments.
Labour also added that the strike is being suspended to show appreciation to the state government’s commitment to the welfare of its workers, having in mind the need to collect data towards the completion of the critical verification exercise of workers and retirees in the entire public service.
Adekomi stressed that committees will be put in place comprising government and Labour unions representatives who will embark on the screening exercise of all categories of workers and pensioners in the state.
According to him, “The MOU we are signing today is agreed to by both parties taking due cognisance of the present parlous financial situation of the state on an interim basis, as a condition precedent to suspending the strike action.
“Committees will be set up according to the MOU aimed at screening, determination of the actual wage bill, and workers in the employment of the state, the actual number and actual monthly pensions’ bills of both Local Governments’ and State Government Pensioners.”
Meantime, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joint Public Service Negotiating Councils JPSNC, and the Trade Union Congress TUC, in the state yesterday dissociated the unions from the recent protests embarked upon by a group of people in the state over unpaid salaries.
The unions, after calling off the strike used the opportunity to condemn the protests and described them (protests) as being politically-motivated.