Strike continues as govt, labour parley ends in deadlock

The NLC in Oyo State on Thursday called on its members to continue with the ongoing strike action as the peace parley between it and government failed to resolve the impasse.

The Chairman of the NLC in the state, Mr Waheed Olojede, told newsmen in Ibadan that government failed to meet the terms of agreement with the labour leadership.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a peace parley held on Wednesday between the labour leadership and government was inconclusive.

Workers led by the national leadership of the NLC had on June 6 declared an indefinite strike over their unpaid six months salaries.

The workers also rejected government’s controversial education initiative to involve private participation in the management of public secondary schools while also demanding the withdrawal of all charges against the labour leaders in a court of law.

Olojede on Thursday disclosed that the meeting held on Wednesday with the governor was not conclusive in resolving the disagreement between government and labour.

He said government had agreed to put on hold the proposed controversial education policy , noting that a 14-man committee would be saddled with the responsibility of ratifying the recommendations.

``The committee will comprise seven representatives from each party, excluding the chairman that will come from government side,’’ he said.

Olojede, however, said that the leadership of labour insisted on the continuation of the ongoing strike action because government did not meet the demand on payment of outstanding salaries.

``We have requested that government pays at least two months of the six months outstanding salaries but government said it cannot pay due to paucity of fund,’’ he said.

He said that since the government was not ready to accede to the demand, there was no way workers in the state could go back to work.

Meanwhile, the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, High Chief Lekan Balogun, has appealed to the state government and labour to embrace dialogue in the settlement of the impasse.

Balogun made the plea during his visit to the NLC Secretariat as part of efforts to ensure peace reigned in the state.