Organised Labour in Kogi state has urged the state government to set up a negotiating team for dialogue rather than indulge in threats of no-work, no-pay policy.
The unions stated that the government should dialogue with the Labour rather than embarking on frivolous propaganda that will cause more harm than good.
In a press statement jointly signed by the secretaries of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Olakunle Faniyi, TUC, Comrade Kolawole James, and Joint Public Negotiating Council, Comrade Isah Abubarkar , expressed dismay that “government and its agents have continued to push falsehood into the public domain, ostensibly to misinformed the people of the state.
“We heard that the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Folashade Ayoade Arike, in her circular to the Ministries, Department and Agencies, threatened to implement the no-work, no-pay policy, which she claimed was a provision of trade Dispute Act, but the SSG failed to mention the act or law that empowers government to deny workers salaries for 21 months.
“She also said that the period of strike would not be reckoned with in the computation of the years of service of the striking workers. We advised the workers to ignore the threat as SSG and current government would not govern the state forever.
The labour union also frowned at the fake stories the governor media office had been planting in some national dailies to give impression that the strike was shunned by workers.
The union called on the traditional rulers to heed to the charge given to them by President Muhammadu Buhari to pressurise the governor to pay workers’ salaries.
