Angered by the lack of palliatives by the government to cushion the effect of the poor economic state, Oyo State workers on Monday locked the state secretariat at Agodi in Ibadan.
Specifically, the workers are demanding palliatives, upward review of pension allowances, and payment of salary deduction among others.
Also on the list of their demands are payment of leave bonuses, payment of gratuities to retirees who have stagnated since the year 2021 and release of promotion letters for the years 2021 and 2022.
The protesters come under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress; Trade Union Congress; Nigeria Union of Pensioners; Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, and others.
In a swift response, however, the government of the state, has urged the protesters to protesters to embrace dialogue.
The government urged the Nigeria Labour Congress to discuss the issue of salary deductions exhaustively, before embarking on any form of protest.
In a statement issued by the Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, the Oyo State government said only three months and not six months deductions were owed workers.
The statement added that every state in the federation owed workers salary deductions and the three months owed by Oyo State was the least.
According to the commissioner, the NLC had shown over the years that they were in support of the present administration because of good governance, but asked them to reflect on the disposition of government to workers’ welfare.
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He said: “While the July salaries have been paid in Oyo State, not less than 20 states including Ondo, Plateau, Benue and Bayelsa are owing several months of salaries in arrears, while several more including neighbouring states are owing months of deduction arrears.
“The Oyo State government started the implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage three years ago, yet up till now many states are still struggling to pay the old wage.
“While it is the Right and Entitlement of our workers to access their wages, especially at this tough time, government implores them to reflect on the sincerity of purpose of this administration.
“The statement said despite the challenges of paying wages, over 2,000 civil servants have been promoted, while almost 1,000 others have been converted to regular service.
“For the records, Oyo State pays N7.3bn monthly as salaries, yet collects N5bn as Federal Allocation.
“Because of this, all the N2.8bn raked in as Internally Generated Revenue IGR are ploughed back literally to service salaries.”
Oyelade added that government deserved a pat on the back, if in spite of this tight rope government still embarked on such magnitude of infrastructural projects, that even the NLC had applauded.
