Former Ekiti State Trade Union Congress (TUC) Chairman Kolawole Olaiya has berated the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state for allowing government to owe workers and pensioners arrears of salary, pension and gratuities.
Olaiya said it was strange to him that labour unions were defending the government. “They have abandoned the workers and defending their paymasters but history and posterity will judge them,” Olaiya said on a Yoruba current affairs programme, ‘Isejoba Rere’ (Good Governance) on Radio Nigeria’s Progress 100.5 FM in Ado Ekiti, yesterday.
The former TUC chief wondered why local government workers, primary school teachers and council pensioners were owed nine months arrears.
“Labour unions have failed the workers because they were installed by the government,” he charged.
Responding, the state chairman of the NLC, Mr. Add Adesanmi, dismissed Olaiya’s allegation. He said, “When he (Olaiya) was the TUC chairman, did the government at that time pay him and the then NLC chairman when that government was owing salary and gratuity?”
He said although he was not justifying government’s failure to pay regularly, he could not ignore the reality that the resources coming to the state were not enough to pay workers.
