A statement by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, MrDonald Ojogo, said the three-day meeting is to robustly engage the workers in an interface, appealing to “workers to await the outcome of these series of engagements aimed at deepening Industrial harmony” in the state.
It said: “The attention of the Ondo State Government has been drawn to a widely circulated correspondence to the Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, SAN.
Among others, the letter in question made allusions to various issues in respect of industrial harmony. It is pertinent to state that the issues raised in the correspondence are not new. They are neither peculiar to Ondo State, especially during this period that has compelled states to undergo unpleasant economic challenges following the drastic drop in both Federation Allocation Account and Internally Generated Revenue.
Nevertheless, the Ondo State Government has always considered the welfare of workers very paramount and shall not play politics with this avowed commitment. It is on record that as at today, Ondo State ranks among those states with a higher level of worker-friendliness among the comity of States in Nigeria.
Our inherited liabilities as well as unforeseen occurrences notwithstanding, this culture of commitment shall be heightened.”
The workers had on Friday handed government a five-day ultimatum to settle their outstanding salaries, leave bonus and other entitlements pending over the years failure of which they would embark on strike.
The workers under the umbrella of the Joint Negotiating Council (JNC), in a letter dated 10th July 2020, gave Akeredolu till Wednesday 15th July 2020 to call for negotiations or the workers would down tools.
This was contained in a letter to the governor and jointly signed by state’s JNC Chairman, Comrade Oluwaniyi Fabunmi and the State Secretary, Comrade Kehinde Olomiye in Akure.
JNC is an umbrella body of all the labour unions in the public service comprising affiliates of the NLC and TUC.
The letter read in part, “We write to bring to your attention the already ‘gathered cloud’ of very serious impending Labour/Government face-off which will be the very first in the life of your administration as the elected Governor of the Sunshine state.
