Paris Club Refund: Industrial strike looms in Ondo

ANOTHER industrial action is looming in Ondo state as the organised Labour in the state, on Sunday issued an ultimatum to the state governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, to pay backlog of salary arrears from the N20 billion Paris club refund to avoid an industrial action.

This was contained in a letter written by the workers and addressed to the state governor dated November 9th 2018, where the workers gave the governor up till 12 noon on Tuesday 13th November 2018 to pay the salaries arrears.

The letter which was signed by the State Chairmen of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) Tayo Ogunleye; Soladoye Ekundayo and Abel Oloniyo respectively, said there was no going back on the planned action if the governor failed to pay the backlog of salaries to the workers.

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The workers alleged governor Akeredolu of not consulting labour unions as agreed on the release of Paris club refund to the state by the federal government.

According to the workers, they would not be able to guarantee industrial peace in the state if the government failed to pay the outstanding salaries on or before tomorrow

The workers who stated that the strike which was suspended in June 2016, threatened to resume the suspended strike if the Paris club loan refund is not used to pay the workers salaries.

The workers’ letter read “We believe that negotiation and agreement with labour were the key criteria of how the fund was released despite that the fund has been released to the state without consulting labour.

“We humbly refer your Excellency to the agreement between labour and the state government before the suspension of our industrial action of 30th June 2016.

“Furthermore, we want to draw the attention of His Excellency to the recommendations of a committee on payment of 6-month arrears of salary to Ondo state workers set up by the state government that was submitted to your Excellency in May 2017.

“We also hold that the said agreement subsists between labour and the government of Ondo state irrespective of who mount the mantle of leadership particular when the State Head of Service remain the signatory to both the agreement and the committee report.

“In view of the above, we call on the government to please pay in line without agreement as analyzed in our letter under reference on or before 12 noon Tuesday 13th of November, 2018

“Failure on the part of the government to accede to our request may not be able to guarantee industrial peace by resuming our suspended strike of 30th June 2016.”