James Sowole in Akure
The Ondo State Government and organised labour are at daggers
drawn over the utilisation of the Paris Club refund of N7.6 billion accrued to the state and which may snowball into the first industrial dispute in the six-month administration of Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN).
The government had last week dared labour by using the 75 per cent
of the N6.38 billion net accrued to the state to pay 80 per cent of September 2016 salary of the state’s public servants despite the agreement reached with the labour leaders at a meeting.
The labour leaders had at the meeting with the governor rejected the
governor’s proposal to use the money to pay 80 per cent salary to all
the public servants in the state but advised government to use the
money to settle 100 per cent salary of workers on Grade Levels 1 to 14 if
that is where the money gets to.
However, the government last Friday ordered the Accountant-General to pay
80 per cent of September 2016 salary to all categories of state workers and which had been carried out.
Disturbed by the action of the government, the labour unions late Saturday held an emergency meeting where Akeredolu was accused of
surreptitiously and forcefully introducing percentage and fractional
salary payment into the state.
Details later…
