Unpaid 34 months salary: Aregbesola agrees to pay 4 months arrears in 2015, 2016 leave bonus

The seeming industrial dispute between the governor of Osun, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, and the organised labour in the state may have been resolved following his readiness to pay four months out of the salary arrears owed civil servants and pensioners in the year 2015, Nigerian Tribune authoritatively gathered.

This latest development was the fallout of last night parley between the state government team, led by the newly appointed Chief of Staff (CoS) to Aregbesola, Mr Rasaq Salinsile and Osun State Commissioner for Finance, Mr Bola Oyebamiji, with the labour unions.

Credible sources, who were at the peace parley informed our correspondent that the state government had resolved to pay the salary of civil servants for September, October, November and December 2015, including the leave bonus of 2016 to all workers and pensioners, being owed pension allowances for the aforementioned months.

The labour delegation to the peace parley was led by the chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Osun, Comrade Jacob Adekomi, his counterpart in the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Adebowale Adekola and other labour leaders, just as the chairman of the Osun State Revenue Appropriation Committee, Comrade Hassan Sunmonu was also in attendance during the meeting.

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Speaking shortly after the end of the meeting with our correspondent in Osogbo, on Monday night, NLC chairman, Comrade Adekomi said: “We agreed at the meeting that they should pay September, October, November and December salary arrears and pension in 2015. They should also pay 2016 leave bonus arrears for all the workers.

According to him: “We also agree that they should pay the full salary of August to all the workers. We just finished the meeting. The salary arrears and pension for the four months in 2015 would be paid from the available fund and any other money government receives subsequently would also be used to pay workers the remaining months they are owing us.

“We agreed with the terms. We started the negotiation about three days ago. The payment for the four months, 2016 leave bonus and August salary are what can be sourced from the presently available resources. They informed us that the N16.7 billion Paris fund approved by the Federal Government for Osun has not been paid into the account of Osun State. Yesterday, they called them in Abuja. They assured us that by Wednesday, workers would be receiving bank alerts for their salaries as captured in the four months I mentioned,” Adekomi disclosed.

On whether they would shelve their plan to embark on industrial action after the expiration of 7-day notice ahead of warning strike, he said “we are not embarking on strike again,” adding that the government assured us that they were working on the remittance of pension deductions of workers.