By DAVID ADEOYE

Oyo State Government, on Monday, rallied the organised labour to a roundtable over salary deductions and other demands, saying that it owed workers only three-month deductions.

This is contained in a statement issued on Monday in Ibadan by the Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Oyelade’s statement was in reaction to the protest staged by the organised labour in Ibadan.

NAN reports that the civil servants had staged the peaceful protest over non-payment of salary deductions, leave bonus and review of pension allowances.

The workers, under the aegis of NLC, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) and the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), held the protest at the state secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.

Hundreds of the workers, led by union leaders, had converged on the secretariat as early as 7:45 a.m., blocked the gate and obstructed human and vehicular movement in and out of the place.

The workers, however, suspended the protest around 1:00 p.m. and agreed to continue with it on Tuesday morning.

In the statement, the commissioner said that virtually all the states of the federation were owing workers salary deductions, saying that the three months owed by Oyo State was the least.

He said that NLC had shown over the years that it was in support of the present administration because of good governance, asking the workers to reflect on government’s disposition to their welfare.

“While the July salaries have been paid in Oyo State, not less than 20 states are owing several months of salaries in arrears, while several more, including neighboring 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, the workers should reflect on the sincerity of purpose of this administration,” Oyelade stated.

He further recalled that despite the challenges of paying wages, over 2,000 civil servants have been promoted, while almost 1,000 others had 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.

“Government deserves a pat on the back if, in spite of this tight rope, government still embarks on such magnitude of infrastructural projects, that even the NLC has applauded numerously.”

The commissioner further said that the state government was confident that NLC would come to the negotiating table to chart a realistic path in balancing the welfare of the workers to which the government was obviously committed. (NAN)