Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has approved the payment of N25,000 and N15,000 to workers and pensioners in the state respectively as wage award to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.
He announced this when he addressed workers who stormed the Governor’s Office on Monday in Ibadan.
The workers were there to protest the non-payment of the money by the state government.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the workers were led by the Nigeria Labour Congress Chairman in the state, Kayode Martins; his Trade Union Congress counterpart, Bosun Olabiyi; and Olaonipekun Oluwaseun of the Joint Negotiating Council.
They had stormed the Governor’s Office following a decision taken by the unions at a congress held on Monday to ensure that the issue of wage award was resolved once and for all.
The Governor, who reiterated his administration’s commitment to workers’ welfare, said the payment would commence from October and be paid for six months when a sustainable salary package for workers would have been determined.
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Makinde, who admitted the fact that there was economic hardship in the country, said the wage award would increase the state’s wage bill by N2.2 billion.
He called on the protesting workers to partner with the government in its quest to improve the state’s Internally Generated Revenue.
Martins and Olabiyi in their remarks said the approval of the wage award by the Governor had brought the workers’ agitation to an end.
They, however, said that they remained committed to pursuing the other demands and agitations of their members.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the governor had last month constituted an 11-member ad-hoc inter-ministerial committee on the harmonisation of the demands of the labour unions in the state.
The committee, chaired by Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Olanike Adeyemo, was charged with the responsibility of coming up with homegrown solutions to issues bordering on workers’ welfare in the state.