A socio-politial group has advised state government workers in Oyo State to be
\nready to negotiate with the in-coming administration on the contentious matter of the new minimum wage so that the administration could find its feet and stabilise governance.
\nThe Oyo Kajola Group (OKG), in a statement, noted that position of the Oyo State governor-elect, Mr Seyi Makinde, that he would have to negotiate with the labour union over the N30,000 minimum wage law, is based on the present financial situation of the government.
\nThe OKG said the governor-elect\u2019s position was \u201ccandid, forthright and patriotic\u201d.
\nIt implored the workforce in the state and well-meaning residents to be ready to \u201creason and make compromises with the new government when such need arises, until the new government finds its feet.\u201d
\nAccording to the group, in the statement signed by its media coordinator, Taiwo Ogunlade, it was uncharitable for opposition politicians and mischief-makers to twist Makinde\u2019s candid view about the situation in the state, saying: \u201cthe extant reality in Oyo State is such that the state\u2019s financial capacity would not be able to bear the burden that will be occasioned by the sharp rise in wage and a good-hearted and truthful chief executive, which is what Makinde has promised to be, cannot shy away from expressing these worries.
\n\u201cWhile the governor-elect has promised to transform the state immensely and to turn
\naround its internally-generated revenue, which will make it less dependent on
\nfederal allocations, all these cannot be done in a hurry. The workers, who we
\nbelieve, have always been partners in the progress of the state, should be
\nready to negotiate with the new government, so that it could find its feet and stabilise governance,\u201d the group said.
\n\u201cThe financial reality and preliminary findings of the governor-elect, which showed how the state has been groaning under a heavy financial burden under the
\noutgoing government and how the government has continued to pile more burdens with last minute attempts to ground the incoming government, led Makinde to make the statement.
\n\u201cIt will be uncharitable for the outgoing
\ngovernment, which has less than a month to leave office to rush into paying a
\nwage that will become unsustainable. Oyo State workers should not forget in a
\nhurry how Governor Abiola Ajimobi had, in 2011, dilly-dallied over the new
\nminimum wage and how he had waged wars on the workers, ranging from threats to blackmail,\u201d the statement added.
\nRecall that when the out-going Governor Abiola Ajimobi began moves to meet with workers after he promised to pay the new wage, Makinde, in a statement by his spokesperson, Prince Dotun Oyelade, queried the intention and sincerity of the outgoing government to open negotiation with the labour unions about 30 days to his exit.
\nHe accused the Ajimobi administration of wanting to complicate issues for him in exactly the same manner it is doing in awarding fresh contracts and rolling out largesse to\u00a0politicians and friends.
\nHe warned against what he described as any booby traps in the planned negotiation by the outgoing government,\u00a0reiterating his commitment towards ensuring that nothing short of the interest of workers would be acceptable to his administration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A socio-politial group has advised state government workers in Oyo State to be ready to negotiate with the in-coming administration on the contentious matter of the new minimum wage so that the administration could find its feet and stabilise governance. The Oyo Kajola Group (OKG), in a statement, noted that position of the Oyo State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}