>
Civil servants in Osun State on Tuesday staged a protest against the non-payment of five months salaries by the state government.
The workers were led by the state Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Olatunji Akinyemi. They walked through the Osogbo/Gbongan Road, chanting anti-government songs.
Speaking to journalists, the workers said Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led administration is yet to pay them the outstanding salaries and has refused to remit pension contributions, deducted from their previous salaries, to various retirement savings accounts.
They alleged that the governor was spending the state’s resources on campaigns of the All Progressives Congress while leaving workers to suffer untold hardship.
The TUC chairman told Punch: “We are out on the streets today to protest the non-payment of our salaries. The government is owing us five months.
“Apart from the salaries, the loan repayment deductions, pension deductions and union dues deducted from our salaries were stopped were not remitted to the appropriate quarters.
“The workers say no to non payment of our salaries, we say no to illegal withholding of fund deducted from our salaries. The government has refused to pay its part of workers’ pension, the ones deducted from our salaries were not remitted.”
He added that no worker could go on retirement now with this situation saying because they would suffer if they tried it.