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    Monday, September 7, 2015

    Ajimobi Lied On Pay Cut Claim, Says NLC

    The Chairman of the Oyo State branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Waheed Olojede, has denied reaching an agreement with Governor Abiola Ajimobi to reduce salaries of workers in the state.
    Speaking with our correspondent on Sunday, Olojede said that the governor alleged during a live interview on Splash FM in Ibadan on Saturday that he met with labour leaders and secured an agreement that would slice off certain percentage of workers’ salaries.

    Olojede explained that he never led the state labour leaders to a meeting with Governor Ajimobi with the view to reduce workers’ salaries in the state.
    He said, “The governor said we had a meeting with him and that an agreement was reached to reduce workers’ salaries. This is not true. We actually had a meeting with him recently but we never discussed any issue relating to salary cut. At the meeting we had with the state government, what we discussed was the payment of outstanding salaries to workers since the Federal Government had approved the bailout (of N26.6bn) for the state. The government agreed with us that it will use the bailout to pay outstanding salaries and pensions it owed workers. The meeting did not go beyond that.”

    Olojede said rather than instituting a process leading to the reduction of workers’ wage bill in the state, a move to agitate for a review of the minimum wage to workers was being planned by the national body of the NLC. While stating that the state labour would resist any pay cut by the governor, Olojede added that it would amount to a betrayal of trust if the state labour leaders agreed to reduce the salaries.

    “We want to also state it categorically that under no condition shall we accept a salary cut at a time when the situation of workers is very appalling, and at a time when workers cannot afford three square meal. How will any reasonable labour leader come up to discuss and agree with the government that workers’ salaries should be reduced? We have no agreement to that effect with the governor.

    “For clarification and to put the record straight, the last National Executive Council meeting of the NLC held in Abuja directed the national leadership to commence the process of negotiation for a new minimum wage in Nigeria. If the NLC is doing that at the national level, can NLC leaders in Oyo State return home to enter into an agreement with the government for salary cut? The last minimum wage approval in Nigeria was given in 2011. The law says that at the end of every five years, labour deserves the right to ask for a review of the minimum wage. This is the process we are initiating now, not salary cut,” he added.

    Asked if labour leaders in the state had confronted the governor over his statement, Olojede said it would be wrong to have private discussion with Ajimobi after his public statement.

    “The damage he did was in the public. Ever since he made the statement, workers have been accusing us of betraying them. They asked if what they sent us to do was what we did. If I now have a private discussion with the governor on the issue, how will the public know that the alleged discussion he said we had with him was not true?” he asked.
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