BEVERLY HILLS, July 26, (THEWILL) – The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has frowned over what he regarded as falsehood insinuations that Osun is not paying workers their monthly salaries.
Aregbesola said in spite the economic challenges confronting the nation and Osun state, in particular, his administration has not failed in paying the state workforce regularly.
According to a statement by the Director Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Governor Aregbesola was quoted as stating these while delivering a key note address at a programme organised by the Osun state command of the Police Community Relations Committee.
He declared that in spite the economic challenges confronting the nation and Osun state, in particular, his administration has not failed in paying the state workforce regularly.
According to the statement, the Governor said he was aware of the insinuation being peddled by those he regarded as adversaries to incite the public against his administration, saying workers in the state have been paid up to June 2017.
He declared that instead, his administration has done so much in prioritising the welfre of the workforce, an initiative which according to him has made a difference to the course of good governance.
“Let me make a resounding correction that despite the paucity of funds, it is only a section of workers on grade level 12 and above who receives painfully 50 percent of their gross salaries based on an agreement between the government and the labour union,” he revealed.
“So outside that category of workers on grade level 12 and above, no other receives half of his or her salaries and the workers in this category are just 20 percent of the state workforce.
“Outside that, officers on levels 8-10 receive 75 percent of their salaries while officers on levels 7 and below receive their full pay.
“Contrary to what the naysayers claim about us, all workers in the state have received their salaries up to June this year according to the payment scheme and agreement.
“The only outstanding salary in Osun is the month we are in and by the grace of God before the month end, every worker will earn their salary in line with the agreement will have with workers.
“I am saying this to correct the impression of those spreading falsehood and capitalising on this that we have been up to our responsibilities as regards the payment of workers’ salaries in accordance with the available resources.
“As we pay active workers, so we pay pensioners. The only outstanding pay to pensioners is the gratuity and this is due to workers who choose not to participate in the Contributory Pension Scheme and therefore left service in 2011/2012.
“The amount required to service that gratuity is about N5billion and we keep on telling them that once we have the capacity to so do, we will surely pay them.
“One thing that is certain about money is that once you don’t have it you can not use it. It doesn’t mean we hate them; its because of limited resources to pay them and meet physical expenditure.
“The pensioners in the state do receive their pensions and what is outstanding is only the N5billion gratuities that we can not afford for now.”
