By Michael Adesanya/Abeokuta
The Organized Labour in Ogun state on Tuesday have warned that there is no going back on their indefinite strike, until the state government addresses the issues with the Contributory Pension Scheme.
They insisted on meeting with Governor Dapo Abiodun directly, saying no other official would be accepted to serve as a representative in the ongoing negotiations.
The union leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Joint Negotiation Committee (JNC) stated this while briefing newsmen on the reason behind the strike.
Cityvoiceng reports that the workers had embarked on an indefinite strike following the non remittance of the contributing pension funds. They also demanded the suspension of the state pension reform law, saying it has failed in its objectives as successive government over the past 17 years have failed to remit over N82bn owed to workers.
The union explained that it was not embarking on trade dispute to cripple the economy, but were only fighting for the rights of its members.
State Chairman of NLC, Commrade Hameed-Benco Ademola while speaking at the State Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Iwe Iroyin, Abeokuta, noted that several letters and engagements with government officials at multiple times have yielded no results.
Hameed-Benco disclosed that previous engagements with the government gave hope that the administration would scrap the scheme, lamenting that the issue resurfaced during the May 1st Workers’ Day leaving workers disappointed.
He said, “That bill has no future. It has failed from day one. We have written several letters, engaged government officials at multiple forums, yet nothing has changed. This scheme should never apply to workers who were already in service before its introduction in 2008.
“We thought we had convinced the key players, and they agreed to revisit the scheme. But during the May Day celebration, it was clear that nothing had changed. This is unacceptable.
“They’ve started calling us for meetings, but we are not attending any meeting unless it is with the governor himself. No commissioner, no head of service. We want to meet the one who approves our salaries — the governor”.
Chairman of the state chapter of the Trade Union Congress, Akeem Lasisi, also pointed out that the Contributing Pension Scheme was a failure from the start, stating that Dapo Abiodun has never paid a dime, while former governors Gbenga Daniel and Ibikunle Amosun paid up until a certain point before they began to default.
He said: “The scheme fails from conception, right form the tenure from governor Gbenga Daniel, he owed us few months before he left, governor Ibikunle Amosun came in, he started paying the money and paid for just only 9months and he started defaulting.
“Then came the tenure of the current governor, Dapo Abiodun CON, he has not paid a kobo into that scheme. Now the law states that pay the money you deducted from workers salaries within seven working days, 14 years and still counting, the government of Ogun state has not remitted the money into the retirement savings account of individual workers”.
The JNC Chairman, Isa Olude, urged the state government to pay what it owes before commencing the implementation of the scheme.
“All channels used to communicate their grievances was not effective, they are not ready to listen to us” he said.
