| credits: Olatunji Obasa
The
Ogun State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress has decried the state
government’s failure to pay the contributory pension deductions and
other backlog of arrears of its workers for five years.
The state chairman of the NLC, Akeem
Ambali, said this in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on Wednesday
while briefing journalists at the union’s secretariat.
He said many workers in the state were becoming restless, agitated despondent.
According to him, there were unremitted pension deductions, cooperative deductions, gratuities, dues and others.
He said, “We have a backlog of unpaid contributory pension scheme of 60 months, we also have unpaid dues of seven months.
“We
have unpaid cooperatives dues and other deductions of about eight
months. We are also having an outstanding arrears of gratuities from
November 2012 till date that have not been paid to retirees.”
Ambali, who acknowledged the dwindling
allocation from the Federal Government, said the government must treat
workers’ welfare as a priority.
The union leader, who commended
President Muhammadu Buhari for the recent bailout of N713.7bn approved
by his administration, however, warned state governors not to divert the
fund to settle other debts.
He noted that the bailout would only be a
bonus to Ogun State government as Governor Ibikunle Amosun had promised
to pay all unremitted cooperative deductions by the end of the month.
Ambali said, “Now that we are having a
bailout from the Federal Government, workers are afraid that some
governors might use that money to settle other commitments. We are not
saying Ogun State government would do that but we are being proactive.
“We want to appeal to the Ogun State
government to ensure that that money is judiciously and properly used to
settle these outstanding arrears.
“The NLC also noted that subvention to
higher institutions in Ogun State has not been remitted since January
till date. We are aware that the workers of Tai Solarin College of
Education, Omu Ijebu, are struggling to get their salaries up till now,
these pathetic situations call for concern.”
On the recent proscription of workers’
unions in TASCE, Ambali said the government did that in error, adding
that the executive has no such power.
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