The Ondo State workers that embarked on industrial action to protest against the non-payment of their five months salary by the state government, have threatened that if the state government refuses to pay their salaries by Friday, there will be display of madness.
Mr. Sola Ekundayo, the chairman of the Trade Union Congress ( TUC) stressed this during the meeting of the organised labour and the leadership of the Ondo State House of Assembly on Wednesday in Akure, the state capital.
The chairman stated that the industrial action, which reached day 15 on Wednesday was one of the longest in the state and needed to be addressed. He declared that if the situation persisted till Friday, the workers might exhibit some level of madness in their attitude to the government.
“There is level of insanity already in us because today makes it 15 days of this strike, which is the longest in the state. People are hungry and it is said that a hungry man is an angry man and an angry man is a mad man.
“We demand at least payment of three months salaries, else, we may go haywire,” The TUC Chairman said.
Appealing to the striking workers, the speaker of the Assembly, Mrs. Jumoke Akindele encouraged them to give room for fresh negotiation between the two parties in order to end the two-week-old strike.
Akindele noted that the House was aware of the suffering the workers were passing through for non-payment of their five months salaries, assuring them that the state Assembly would find solution to the problem very soon.
She said, “We are deeply concerned by the situation on the ground, but we should look for ways out of the ugly situation and forge ahead.”
Meanwhile chairman of Joint Negotiations Council in the state, thanked the assembly leadership for its intervention but said that the meeting was belated, stating that the non payment of the salaries had rendered the state redundant because it was a civil service state.
The JNC chairman advised the state government to suspend all capital projects it was embarking on and pay workers’ salaries.
According to him, “No matter the capital projects, they will not put food on tables of workers and what we are asking for is reward for service rendered.