- Govt: No plan to sack workers
By Banji Ayoola
Labor leadership in Osun state has kicked against the proposed staff audit by the state government on the ground that workers are not properly briefed about the exercise.
However, the state government said that the exercise is not targeted at any workers
The joint leadership comprising of the state’s chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, after an emergency meeting on Wednesday in Osogbo, rejected the allegedly unfair plan about which they claimed the government did not give them adequate information.
The unions said: “We are rejecting the exercise going by hardship experienced by workers and pensioners in the past, after such an audit.”
Besides, they condemned the alleged circulation of forms among workers by a consulting firm hired by the state government for the purpose of counting the planned staff audit without proper briefing.
In a letter forwarded to the state’s Head of Service, the joint labor movement stated that “the meeting of the above Labour Centres comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, and Joint Negotiating Council which deliberated extensively on a purported 2023 Staff Audit Forms in circulation among the workers of Osun state, resolved as follows:
“1. that the Joint Labour Movement in the state rejects in its entirety, the circulation of the purported illegal forms by Sally Tibbot Consulting.
“2. that considering the past experiences of Osun workers in exercises of this nature, the entire joint Labour Movement in the state totally rejects any form of a contractual agreement or consultancy service(s) that will further bring untold hardship on the workers and pensioners of Osun state.”
TUC state chairman, Comrade Adebowale Adekola, further told reporters that: “We are stakeholders in government but we were not briefed about this staff audit. Circulating forms within an organisation without properly informing the leadership of such an institution is unfair.
“No sane human being will tolerate such a move. The government has the power and capacity to do staff audits or take inventory, but we also have the mandate to protect the rights of workers. We should be properly briefed first, ”
The state government, however, allayed the fears of labor leaders over the exercise, which it said, is neither to witch-hunt anybody, nor an agenda to sack workers from the state service.
It reacted in a statement by the governor’s chief press secretary, Olawale Rasheed, the government says it has taken note of the concerns of labor leaders, adding that the governor has directed a review of the issues raised by the union leadership.
Describing the relationship between Governor Ademola Adeleke and the labor movement as unprecedented in the history of the state, the statement said that there was no hidden agenda to sack workers through the exercise.
It maintained that workers’ welfare is of topmost priority in the governor’s agenda, assuring all stakeholders that no anti-labor policy can surface under the watch of the current labour-friendly administration.
The government added that the request of the labor leadership to be part of the audit process is being looked into.
