Judiciary workers in Oyo State under the aegis of Judicial Staff Union (JUSUN) have called on the state government to as a matter of urgency address the delay in the payment of salaries of the members.
The Union said they would no longer tolerate the situation where the members get their salary two or three weeks after others in the state get theirs on the 25th of the month.
State Chairman of JUSUN, Comrade Kayode Martins who confirmed to The Nation on Wednesday that the Judiciary workers only got payment of April salary on 4th of May noted that, that is the earliest time the workers had gotten their pay since December 2021.
According to Martins, the timeframe the judiciary workers get their salary was between 15th- 17th of the next month which was against the mantra of the Governor Seyi Makinde led administration.
He said “April salary dropped this evening (Wednesday night).
“Meanwhile we won’t condone such situations anymore where other workers would be paid on 24 & 25th of the month and judiciary workers will have to wait for weeks after before getting theirs.”
Asked why the judicial workers shun duty on Wednesday (yesterday), despite opening the gates of the State High Court, Ring Road, Ibadan, Martins who is also the Oyo State Chairman of the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), said the move was in reaction to the condition of the workers, many of whom don’t have money to come to work, caused by the delay in the payment of their salaries.
He however called on the state government to ensure prompt payment of their salaries to ensure efficiency.
It was gathered that some of the workers on Wednesday stayed off their offices because of the recurrent delay in salary payment.
The entrance gate to court premises and some offices were open for commencement of work after the Eid-el Fitr and May Day holidays.
But, some workers were said to have stayed away from their various duty posts.
According to Martins, although the union was not on strike, many of the workers could not transport themselves to and fro work because of lack of money.
“We agreed that those who can afford to come to office should do so, as we are all managing the situation. The union had made efforts to seek stakeholders’ help on what the workers could do to ensure prompt payment of salary.
“The action was to draw government’s attention to the irregular payment of their salaries. If we receive our salaries today, normalcy will return tomorrow.
“We have been appealing to the state government for long but nobody is telling us the reason for the delay.
