Ogun workers insist on Abiodun talks over pensions row

Dapo

The striking workers of Ogun State, on Tuesday, vowed not to sit down and talk with any government official other than Governor Dapo Abiodun.

The workers had embarked on an indefinite strike on Tuesday, over the unremitted N82bn contributory pension deductions spanning 14 years.

Addressing journalists at the secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Ogun State Council, at Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta, the labour leaders said the strike would continue until the governor called the labour union leaders for a fruitful meeting.

They claimed that past meetings held with other government officials had brought no respite, adding that the issue under dispute was crucial to their survival and well-being.

Speaking during the press briefing, the state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Hameed Ademola-Benco, supported by his Trade Union Congress counterpart, Comrade Akeem Lasisi and representative of the Joint Negotiating Council, stated that no amount of threat or intimidation would make them call off the strike except a concrete agreement with the governor was achieved.

Ademola-Benco said, “Yes we have been receiving calls from one government official, but I told my colleagues that we are not going to meet that person, he is our major problem.

“We want to meet only the governor, His Excellency, Dapo Abiodun. He is our employer.

“We are not employees of the Secretary to the State Government, we are not employees of the Head of Service or the Chief of Staff or any commissioner.

“We are employees of Governor Abiodun. He is the one paying our salaries every month, and he is the one we want to sit with on this matter, not any other person.”

He said the contributory pension scheme was giving the workers sleepless nights, arguing that even if it was implemented, a worker who retired on the old pension scheme could be collecting over N300,000 monthly pension while someone who retired on the contributory pension scheme of the same level would be collecting N60,000 as monthly pension.