Barely 48 hours before the commencement of the proposed nationwide strike by labour unions across the country, the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has shown commitment to reviewing state workers’ salaries as part of efforts to cushion the effect of the oil subsidy removal by the Federal Government.
Consequently, the governor has set up a committee comprising both representatives of the labour unions and the state government.
They include the Head of Service, HoS, Permanent Secretary, Service Matters; Permanent Secretary, Establishment; Director of Service Matters, Director, Establishment; Accountant General of the state, and Permanent Secretary, Finance.
On the side of the organised labour are, the Nigeria Labor Congress NLC, Nigeria Union of Teachers NUT, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Nigeria Union of Pensioners NUP, Joint Health Sector Union JOHESU and Joint Negotiating Council, JNC and the Chairman, Association of Senior Staff.
The governor, while meeting with the leadership of the unions in the state at the Executive Council Chambers on Monday, gave the Committee eight weeks to come up with a workable minimum wage.
Makinde said: “For this administration, with all sincerity, we think it’s time to engage and ensure that we are proactive irrespective of what is happening or coming at the national level, we already prepared for it here and we can run our on the programme.”
“If you all remembered I said there is nothing stopping Oyo state from paying more than the national minimum wage if we had the resources, if we can expand our economy to that extent and I still believe we can do it.”
“We can pay in Oyo State beyond the national minimum wage and we have them to expand our economy and ensure that the relationship between the leadership of the labour unions and government remain cordial and we focus on the single objective, how to make life better for the people of Oyo State.”
Governor Makinde, while maintaining that there was no trust deficit between the government and labour in the state, said his administration is poised to increase the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, to give the state leverage to do better in terms of meeting the needs of the people.
Earlier in his remarks, Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in the state, Mr Kayode Martins, who led the organised labour, said the review of the new wage is long overdue, lamenting the hardship being experienced by Nigeria workers since fuel subsidy was halted in the last one week.