Minimum Wage: Group berates Ondo Labour leaders for being partisan
A non partisan group in Ondo State , Sunshine Youths Movement (SYM) has accused the Labour leaders in the state of being used by some politicians to destabilize the present government in the state.
The group specifically, said the leadership of the Joint Negotiation Council (JNC) and the Nigerian Labour Congress were being sponsored by a political party to ensure that the state was grounded to a halt over the issue of the National Minimum wage.
According to statement issued by the National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Femi Adewale in Akure yesterday, it wondered why the workers in the state were compelled to go on strike by their leaders when the state government had agreed to implement the N18, 000 minimum wage.
Adewale expressed displeasure about the way the labour leaders forced the workers who were ready to report to their duty posts back when they reported at their various offices.
He added that such an action from the Labour leaders was totally uncalled for and a sign that they were being sponsored by a political group.
Adewale urged the state government not to succumb to any form of blackmail from the union groups who hell bent in making the state ungovernable by their action.
The statement reads in part, “We observed with dismay the attitude of the labour leaders in Ondo state over their latest illegal strike over the N18, 000. It is disheartening that these union leaders despite the decision of government to pay the new salary scale went on strike.
'The most annoying part is that these leaders when they saw that the workers did not comply with their directives, went to various offices and start sending people who are ready to work back home.
'Such action is highly condemnable considering the fact that the present government has transformed Ondo state in all spheres. I think it is high time these leaders were call to order because they cannot hold the entire state to ransom.
“Ondo state belongs to everyone of us and we must all work to ensure that some disgruntled elements to be a clog in the wheel of the current transformation going on in the sunshine state”.
The group also warned members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to be constructive in their criticisms and stop raising unnecessary alarm over government activities.
Rather, Adewale urged the leadership of the ACN to allow government to concentrate on its developmental stride rather than engaging in unnecessary criticism to portray the Mimiko led government in bad light.
“We think the leaders of the ACN in Ondo state should for once be objective in their criticism and stop their evil plan to pull down a performing government. It is on record that the Mimiko government has done creditably to transform Ondo state.
“It is high time the ACN stopped playing politics of bitterness in the Sunshine state and allow the present government to be focused and execute its good programmes for the good people of Ondo state”