"See, this is the Garri that I drink inside the office. I can no longer eat good food again because the salary is not enough. I can hardly pay my children's school fees," a civil servant said.
There was chaos at the Oyo State government secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, on Monday, as leaders of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) forced civil servants out of their offices.
At about 11.43 a.m., the Labour leaders shut the Agodi Secretariat main gate and moved from one ministry to another, dispersing the workers.
Addressing journalists after the exercise, the chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Oyo State chapter, Bosun Olabiyi, affirmed that Organised Labour embarked on the indefinite strike due to the breakdown in the negotiation of the minimum wage.
He said the exercise just carried out was in a bid to ensure that the industrial action was effective. "We came to monitor compliance at the Secretariat just as in all other states. Our instruction is very clear: everybody should stay at home," Mr Olabiyi added.
A junior cadre staff at the Oyo State Ministry of Health, Grace Akindele, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES shortly after she was evicted from her office, said the unions were acting in the best interest of all employees.
Mrs Akindele said, for instance, that her current pay was insufficient to buy groceries from the market, noting that the rising cost of food and increased transportation costs further eliminate all that is left of her monthly income.
"Look inside my bag, this is the Garri that I drink inside the office. I can no longer eat good food again because the salary is not enough. I can hardly pay my children's school fees," she said.
Mrs Akindele, however, said a decrease in prices of food and other commodities would be preferred rather than an increment in salary.
After being chased out, Sunday Fálànà, another worker, said he had only come to check on the work he had left behind on Friday.
He expressed support for the labour leaders, saying they were acting on workers' behalf as the issue of minimum wage, food scarcity and electricity tariff affected everyone. "Workers deserve better from the government," he added.
Another civil servant, Animasahun M. A., blamed the workers for violating the order of the unions by not joining their striking colleagues in the first instance.
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"Although I heard the news but, I was confused. You know this kind of situation often confuses. They might say there would be a strike, and before morning, they would have called it off. We really appreciate our union leaders for their proactive action," she said.
TUC chairman, Mr Olabiyi, affirmed that Organised Labour embarked on the indefinite strike due to the breakdown in the negotiation of the minimum wage.
"Many times, they are not present. Government have not shown the kind of seriousness that we believe this negotiation should attract," he said.
He noted that the minimum wage law must be repealed and enacted every five years and that 2019 was the last time it was done.
"If the federal government can assure us that all prevailing economic factors will go back to what it used to be in 2019, we will not ask for any minimum wage increment," he said.
Mr Olabiyi complained that the proposed new minimum wage of N60,000 by the Federal Government was not sufficient for workers' transportation fares, let alone other things.
