The Nigeria Labour Con
gress (NLC), Oyo State chapter, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the bailout to state governments to enable them to pay arrears of their workers’ salaries.
The commendation is contained in a Communique signed by Waheed Olojede and Kofo Ogundeji, the Chairman and Acting state Secretary of Congress respectively, after the State Executive Congress held on July 9 at Yidi Gate, Ibadan.
The Congress stated that “the state NLC commends President Muhammadu Buhari for his concern to workers and for his approval for bailout fund for states owing workers arrears of salaries.
“The NLC, however, condemned in its entirety, the financial recklessness of the managers of God-given resources of Nigeria and the untold hardships which the masses have been subjected to.’’
It would be recalled that the President had, after the FAAC meeting of July 6 in Abuja, approved a bailout fund for state governments that owed workers arrears of salaries.
The NLC Communiqué, therefore, called for prompt payment of the arrears as soon as the fund was made available by the Federal Government.
The Congress-In-Session also implored the state governments to be wary of any form of ill advice as it was being rumoured to divert the fund for some uses other than for the purpose for which it was approved.
The Congress frowned at the continued delay in the disbursement of May allocation for the balance of April salary to staff of local governments in Oyo State, including primary school teachers.
The Congress noted that the delay was a deviation from the Memorandum of Understanding mutually signed in the wake of the salary crisis and expressed worry over the withdrawal of workers’ buses.
“The withdrawal of the buses has caused untold hardships to workers, especially at this critical period of accumulated unpaid salaries,’’ the communique stated.
The Congress-In- Session, therefore, appealed to Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State to direct the return of the buses for the use of workers to ameliorate their hardship.
The State NLC then called for an urgent Government/Labour meeting to avail both parties the opportunity to work on the special allocation released to the state after the FAAC meeting of July 6.
The Congress, however, commended the understanding and perseverance of the state’s workforce and assured strict commitment and sense of responsibility of the state labour movement to workers’ welfare.