Kogi pledges to avert industrial action

THE Kogi state government on Thursday declared its readiness to ensure the industrial peace enjoyed in the state is not threatened by any industrial action by the organised labour.

This followed the seven-day ultimatum given to it by the labour unions after the expiration of which they threatened to embark on strike action to press home their demands.

The government in a statement by t director general on media and publicity to the Governor, Kingsley Fanwo, said every necessary measure would be put in place to ensure workers continue to carry out their legitimate duties to the people of the state.

The government, while acknowledging receipt of a letter of notice of strike from the workers, however said it doubted the authenticity of the letter.

Fanwo said, “We received a letter from some people who claimed to be speaking for our workforce. None of the signatories to the letter was a civil servant. This is a clear departure from the communications we have had with the organised labour. Labour in the state has known leaders that we have been relating with.

“As a responsible government, we are duty bound to investigate the actual source of the letter because the language, tone and content of the letter are at complete variance with our understanding and relationship with labour.

“The two main demands of labor are the repudiation of the clock-in-clock-out system to stem the menace of truancy and ghost workers. At the last meeting with the Governor, labour agreed with government on the need to put the system in place in order to ensure effective and efficient service delivery to the people.

“The feedback we are getting from the system is quite impressive and truancy is gradually becoming a thing of the past in the state. But rather than hail the introduction of the system; ‘labour’ has come out to clearly backtrack on their earlier agreement.

“This is the more reason we need to investigate the letter to determine its source. Leaders of workers are expected to be highly informed and enlightened enough to know that the system is not tantamount to casualisation of the civil service”.

According to him, government involved the workers before taking many of the decisions affecting them, wondering the present stand of workers.

He said, “As a responsible government, we involved labour in the contributory pension processes. Labor was represented in the Committee for the implementation and they played a big role in sensitizing the workers on the benefits of the scheme. For them to turn around to suddenly disagree with the implementation of the scheme is disappointing and a betrayal of the workers who have seen the scheme as the solution to their pension woes.

“Strike should be seen as the last resort in industrial disputes resolution. It is unfair to the people of Kogi State to pollute the atmosphere of peace pervading the state since the inception of this administration”.