News: Ondo State Government Sacks 600 Council Workers

Ondo State Government - There is an indication that the Ondo State Government has sacked about 600 local government workers attached to various classes of traditional rulers in Ondo State as their names were allegedly removed from the government’s payroll.

It was gathered that the affected workers discovered that their names were not on the payroll of the government when other council workers were getting their May salaries last week.

About 600 of them were said to have found their names missing from the payroll.

It was learnt that the affected monarchs’ workers were absorbed into the councils and captured by the remittal payment system during the immediate-past administration of Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

Eight workers were said to have been captured for each first-class monarch,  six for second-class Obas while each of the other lower-class traditional rulers in the state have two council workers captured for them.

As a result of the development, the other council workers in the 18 local government areas of Ondo State have been expressing fear of being sacked by the current administration in the state, though Governor Rotimi Akeredolu had promised not to sack workers.

In her reaction to the development, the Ondo State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mrs. Bosede Daramola, said the congress would resist the alleged action of the government, saying the development was contrary to the promise of the governor.

Daramola said, “These workers, irrespective of who they were working directly with, were employed properly and captured under the remittal system.

“It is unacceptable for the government to sack them and expose them to the previous system when the workers were being paid indiscriminately by the monarchs they were working directly under.”

She called on the governor to wade into the matter to save the affected workers and their family members from unnecessary hardship at a time that economic recession was biting hard.

When contacted for government’s reaction, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Segun Ajiboye, said he was not aware of such development in the state.

Source: The Punch