Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers’ Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU) of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) has denied that staff of the corporation are ready for showdown with the management.
The chairman of the union, Comrade Kolapo Carew said this while speaking with journalists on Saturday, in Ibadan, Oyo state capital.
Carew said the union didn’t at any time agree to petition Governor Seyi Makinde or Anti graft agencies to look into some of the projects embarked upon by the management of the corporation.
He added that the news as being reported by someone online news medium (not Inside Oyo) didn’t represent the decision of the union during its last congress and should be disregarded in its entirety.
He said, although the management is owing staff of the corporation accumulated monthly deductions which span from November 2022 to date. He added that the unions have been on the management’s neck to find a lasting solution to that.
His words: “The news should be disregarded in its entirety. It doesn’t represent the decision of the unions of BCOS during our last congress.
“Although, the management is owing members of staff accumulated monthly deductions. We have met the management on this issue to find a lasting solution to it. The welfare of our members is our priority.”
Also speaking, the chairman of the corporation, Prince Dotun Oyelade said the news is handiwork of a sacked contract staff and some staff of the corporation.
Oyelade who spoke on behalf of the management team of the corporation commended Governor Seyi Makinde for his support and intervention to the corporation since the beginning of his administration.
He said the intervention of the Governor has been helpful to the corporation to meet up with the needs and increasing demands.
Oyelade also spoke on the accumulated monthly deductions which span from November 2022 to date.
He said the issue which started less than 5 months is because of the increasing bill the corporation is experiencing adding that the corporation has close to 50 million outside as debt.
He outlined some measures the management has embarked on to help put an end to the issue. He said the management has embarked on more energetic and aggressive marketing.
He lamented the cost of diesel to power the three offices of corporation in Ibadan, Ogbomoso and Oke ogun. He added that the corporation is embarking on a new energy project in partnership with the Lere Adigun Estate which will help the corporation to save more money from the purchase of diesel to meet the demand.
His words: “We ordinarily would not have responded to the false allegations made. The staff unions have defended us. Reasons being that we engaged the union members from time to time. We opened the books to the union leaders.
“What happened was a hatchet job. One or two people sat somewhere to embarrass us and we have been vindicated. We are not going to name names but we have known the source of the story. A contract staff member of BCOS was asked to leave because he was politically overenthusiastic. Last year, I called the staff and told him what I heard from two chairmen of government agencies.
“As a contract staff member, we only owe him seven days and when we realized he did not change, we do what we have to do. NUJ and NLC intervened and I asked him to resume immediately. I asked him to write a letter but the letter did not show any remorseful or regret.
“In the past four years, the state government has undertaken the financial expenditure of BCOS. Despite the situation in the country, we have reached a number of milestones due to government intervention.
“The state government gives us 27 million naira every month and the money is paid on time because we have a rather big house. Our staff strength is 389. We needed to supplement from our IGR to meet up, we supplement it with 14 million every month
“Apart from that, every month, we spent about 14 million naira on diesel on our stations including the ones in Ogbomoso and Oke Ogun. We are working on how to reduce our diesel consumption. So that we have more money to our staffs and take care of their welfare.”
