ONDO AND THE MINIMUM WAGE DRAMA

N14,000 violates National Minimum wage law, 'you sold out' - Ondo workers to Labour Leaders
Akin Akinyosoye, Liberty News, .

Date & Time Filed on MyOndoState.Com: 2011-06-26 19:58:44

A cross section of Ondo State workers have cried foul over the way their struggle to compel Governor Olusegun Mimiko to pay the N18,000 minimum wage was sold out through a manipulation made possible by stooges of Mimiko who infiltrated the labour union.

For instance, the workers cited the example of the Chairman of JNC, Comrade Solomon Adelegan who signed the agreement on behalf of Labour while the State Head of Service, Mr Ajose Kudehinbu appended his signature for the government for a N14,000 minimum wage.

Adelegan, who read the agreement, declared gleefully that the workers were suspending the industrial action following an understanding between the two sides that the state finances would not be able to accommodate the payment of the new minimum wage for now.

According to him, ?That after going through the facts and figures presented by the government, WHICH TALLIED WITH OUR OWN FIGURES, it was clear to the parties that the government cannot afford to pay the new National Minimum Wage of N18,000 for now.

The workers queried the rational behind embarking upon the industrial action in the first instance if the Labour Leaders already had facts that showed that the government could not afford to pay the National Minimum wage.

Workers also questioned the arithmetic which made ACN Governor Oshiomole of Edo State to be capable of paying the N18,000 National Minimum wage while a much richer Ondo State could not pay.

They complained bitterly that this is the result of the profligacy of Mimiko which manifested in his wasteful appointment of close to 600 people as aides.

The workers who spoke to our reporters challenged the leadership of the labour union and the government to make the 'facts and figures' used to arrive at their conclusion public.

A cross section of workers insist that the National Minimum wage of N18,000 is a constitutional matter that is non-negotiable.

Meanwhile the immediate Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Alhaji Hamman Tukur, has punctured the argument of the state government that it cannot pay. He also opposed the demand by the Nigerian Governors? Forum for the removal of the petroleum subsidy.

Tukur, at the 6th Engineer Mahmud Urwatu Armiya?u Foundation Annual Lecture and Presentation of Awards by the Kaduna branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, in Kaduna on Saturday, argued that the governors received more than enough funds from the Federation Account to meet all their obligations, including paying the N18,0000 new minimum wage.