Rising from a closed door meeting which lasted for hours with Governor Rauf Aregbesola in Osogbo, the state Capital on Monday, the Leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Osun State Government have reached a truce that disbursement and payment of the outstanding salary arrears owed the state’s workers should not exceed seven days from Monday.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said the bailout funds would be deployed in the payment of salaries.
Mr Wabba assured the workers that the NLC was committed to ensuring that all workers were paid their monthly wages as and when due. He said that the Governor had emphasised the need for the judicious use of the bail out fund to settle the workers salaries first.
The NLC President stated that it was important for government at all levels to look inward and fashion out ways to boost it’s Internally Generated Revenue to avoid a recurrence of the inability of government to pay its workforce.
Although, the number of outstanding months that would be paid is yet to be agreed on, Wabba said the state labour was working alongside the government’s delegation to arrive at how best to ease the burden of unpaid salaries on workers.
Meanwhile, Lecturers working in Osun State-owned tertiary institutions on Monday, stormed the State’s House of Assembly in protest of their unpaid salaries.
Mr Rauf Aregbesola, on September 8 assured civil servants that they would be paid their outstanding salary arrears before the end of the month.
Aregbesola made the disclosure while speaking at the National flag off ceremony for the distribution of FGN/UBEC plastic chairs and tables to all the states in the country, in Osogbo, the Osun state capital.
He explained that his administration was committed to the welfare of its workers, and reassured them that the eight months salaries owed them would be settled before the end of September.