News: Ondo State Government has Sacked 187 Staffs

Owena Motel - NO fewer than 187 employees of the Owena Motel, owned by the Ondo State government, have been disengaged over the closure of the Motel. The aggrieved workers have however expressed displeasure about what they described the ‘undue’ disengagement of staff.

The National president of Hotel and Personal Service Senior Staff Association (HAPSSSA), Comrade Adeyemi Ademola said the closure of the hotel verbally and laying off the workers without due process was callous in the purview of the responsible Ondo State Indigenes and Nigerians as a whole.

“What is the fate of more than 187 people employed in the hotel? Who are laid-off without letters of disengagement, Is the government not compounding and increasing unemployment in the state?” He queried.

He said, “our findings revealed that the State Governor has sold the hotel at a mouth-watering amount to an investor for the construction of a Shopping Mall. We considered it as a waste of public asset and destruction of heritage of the people built by founding fathers in order to provide employment for the upcoming generation.”

Ademola, who paid homage to the first executive Governor of the State, Chief Adekunle Ajasin, who built the hotel, added that the locking out of the workers was done at a time the government owed them 19 months salary.

Also, he said the government had failed to comply with the payment of the Pension payment, thus, the workers cannot access any Pension which he said amount to criminal offence.

He added that the state government has equally failed to pay the retirement benefits and gratuity of the affected workers.“In order to clean the stain this might cause, we advise Governor Olusegun Mimiko to address all the issues raised without delay. It should be clear that the salaries and other benefits of the workers are still accruing since their appointments were not legally terminated and we challenged him to show the contrary. Posterity is waiting by the corner, as it is never too late”.

Ademola blamed the Ondo NLC for being docile and inactive on the plight of workers in the state, stressing, “instead of building public institution, our government is selling and destroying the one they met in office”.

Source: The Guardian