No Respite Yet in Oyo Govt., Labour Tussle

As parties meet in court Thursday

Ademola Babalola in Ibadan

No respite yet in the ongoing strike embarked upon by the workers in the employ of Oyo state government over arrears of unpaid salaries as both parties meet this Thursday at the National Industrial Court (NIC) sitting in Ibadan, the state capital.

Addressing a congress on Wednesday, the labour leaders admonished their colleagues to be steadfast and remain committed to the demands of the Nigeria Labour Congress, saying: ‘Tough times never last only tough people do’.

Explaining what led to the case in court, the chairman or the NLC, Comrade Waheed Olojede, said the state government had sought an ex-parte order from the court to stop the strike called by the NLC but it was set aside while the court fixed Thursday as the date for both parties to appear before it.

Curiously, however, and arguably unknown to the state government, Olojede said the strike was actually called by the national body of the union after it was made to understand that workers in the state had not been paid six months’ salaries.

Olojede said, “What really happened was that the state government approached the NIC to stop labour from going on strike. But the government got it wrong because the strike had begun before it sought the order and because we had never written the government informing it that we were going on strike.

“The order was denied while the court decided to put the two parties on notice to appear before it on Thursday. The state executive of NLC did not order the strike, rather, the national body did after seeing the plight of our workers who have not been paid in the past six months.”

Speaking further, Olojede said, “We are only asking for what is rightfully ours. We have worked and the simple rule states that we should be paid what was agreed as wages.”

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