From Segun Ayinde, Abeokuta
Organised labour in Ogun State comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress, TUC, and Joint Negotiation Committee, JNC, yesterday insisted that there is no going back on its industrial action which commenced on Monday.
The labour unions had on Monday, in a resolution reached at the General Parliament of Ogun State Civil/Public Service Workers, held in Abeokuta, directed all workers to down tools until further notice.
But, while speaking at a press conference yesterday at the state secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, in Iweiroyin, Abeokuta, the workers insisted that they would not suspend the strike until Governor Dapo Abiodun meets them in a face-to-face dialogue.
The workers are demanding a stop on the implementation of contributory pension, prompt promotion, payment of eight years unpaid leave allowances, as well N77,000 minimum wage, improved working conditions and fulfilment of agreements among others.
They complained that they had written several letters to the state government and even begged Abiodun at this year’s Workers Day to look into their demands and come to a meaningful agreement to avoid industrial action, but all were to no avail, saying the current administration had defaulted on the pension law since inception in 2019.
The Chairmen of the TUC, Comrade Akeem Lasisi, NLC, Comrade Ademola Hameed-Benco, and JNC, Isa Olude, argued that the current administration had continue to toy with the implementation of the contributory pension scheme where each worker has no personal identification number and could not have access to their own account due to multiple pins or shared pins between them.
They lamented that the state government had not paid a dime into the account of the scheme.
He maintained that the purpose of the scheme had been defeated, as workers after retirement would not be able to enjoy a stress-free life due to government’s inability to remit money into the account of the Pension Fund Administrator, wondering why the current administration would continue to deduct money from workers account without remittance into the Retirement Savings Account.
Lasisi said said if government is sincere with the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme, it should respect the Pension Refund Act of 2006 as amended in 2013 and clear all the money owed the pension fund administrator which is close to N160 billion.
