By Bunmi Ajayi

The Nigeria Labour Congress, Osun State Chapter has warned Governor Rauf Aregbesola to quit the plan to cut civil servants’ salaries by 50 per cent.

The NLC state chairman, Mr Jacob Adekomi, with other labour leaders addressed journalists on the issue on Friday, saying the decision would lead to inconceivable crisis if not officially cancelled.

The workers said although the state had not informed them officially about the reduction, but said the failure to stop the plan would be met with a stiff opposition from the workers.

According to Adekomi, the state government had planned to start paying workers the new rate starting from January 2015.

Adekomi said the state government promised to pay pensioners one month during the last meeting whereas 50 per cent of their pensions for November 2014 was paid.

The chairman added that majority of the workers could not meet their elementary needs; slashing their salaries by 50 per cent would send many to early deaths.

“It’s sad to inform the public that government had resolved to cut the salaries of public servants in Osun State by 50 per cent from January 2015 and we want to unequivocally say that it is unacceptable to the entire workforce in the State of Osun. It is satanic, wicked and suicidal for any government to arrive at this position after he had failed in his constitutional responsibilities for the past eight months.

“Never will the workers accept this. The situation the state government found itself was a product of its systemic failure and any attempt to cut the salaries of workers in the state by one per cent will be vehemently resisted and will lead to unimaginable chaos,” he said.

The entire workers in the state had been loyal to the Aregbesola administration, but was shocked at the decision of the governor to cut the salaries of workers without negotiating with them on it, according to Adekomi.

The NLC chairman added that the workers would insist on getting all their salaries and gratuities before such policy could be implemented. The press conference was marked with anti-government songs by workers present calling the governor unprintable names.

“We want to place it on record that as a direct result of the failure on the part of the government to fulfil its constitutional responsibility, we had lost a couple of workers to the cold hands of death, while the chairman of pensioners in the state, at a meeting with the government on Tuesday June 20, 2015, confirmed that 350 deaths were recorded among pensioners in the last four months,” he said.

The state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr Wakeel Amuda, said workers should be ready to participate in a massive protest anytime soon if the government fails to reverse its decision of the salary cut.

Effort to get the government side on the issue was unsuccessful; CEOAfrica reporter’s calls to the governor’s media aide, Mr Semiu Okanlawon, were not answered.