Oyo State workers on Thursday threatened to commence strike and paralyse government activities starting from tomorow, Friday, May 24, if the state government doesn’t meet their demands.
Part of the demands contained in a two-page statement jointly signed by the NLC secretary, Mohamed Ibrahim and the secretary of Joint Negotiating Council, Lukman Balogun, after a meeting of all public service unions in the state, on Thursday, include payment of at least one month arrear of salary to some Local Government workers in Lagelu, Egbeda, Ogbomoso North and South, Surulere and Ibadan North West LGAs; payment of the remaining arrears of salary to health workers under the umbrella of JOHESU, and immediate enhancement of security within the state hospital, at Ring road, Ibadan.
The union also appealed to the Governing Board of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital to reinstate the sacked workers at the hospital and release letter of promotion up to 2016 as being enjoyed by other sectors in the state.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Bayo Titlola-Sodo had on Wednesday evening told journalists that “a number of teething issues had been on the ground since 2011 when the outgoing government came into power.”
The NLC chairman said the union was not getting favourable response from its negotiations with the outgoing government on the issues including how to end the ongoing primary school teachers’ strike.
The labour union said that if all the above demands were not met within 24 hours, “the leadership of all unions in the Public Service in Oyo State shall not be able to guarantee industrial peace and harmony in the state with effect from Friday 24th of May 2019.”
The release also acknowledged the commitment of the state government to the welfare of workers which include: upgrading of the directorate cadre from grade level 16 to grade level 17, in tandem with the scheme of service in the Federal Civil Service level; lifting embargo placed on lateral conversion and transfer across all cadre in the public service and immediate payment of May, 2019 salary/pension to all workers and pensioners in Oyo State.
