Adeleke, Osun Workers Set For Showdown Over Proposed Staff Audit

The leadership of the Labour Movement in Osun State has kicked against the staff audit proposed by the state government and demanded a proper briefing on the exercise.

The stand of the labour movement came on the heel of the circulation of forms among workers by a consulting firm hired by the state government for the purpose of counting the number of workers on its payroll.

But the leadership of the Joint Labour Movement comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress in the state, rising from a meeting held on Wednesday, said it was rejecting the exercise going by hardship experienced by workers and pensioners in the past, after such an audit.

The group’s letter to the Osun Head of Service read in part, “At the end of the emergency meeting of the above Labour Centres comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress and Joint Negotiating Council which deliberated extensively on a purported 2023 Staff Audit Forms in circulation among the workers of Osun state, resolved as follows:

“1. that the Joint Labour Movement in the state rejects in its entirety, the circulation of the purported illegal forms by SALLY TIBBOT CONSULTING.

“2. that considering the past experiences of Osun workers in exercises of this nature, the entire joint Labour Movement in the state totally rejects any form of a contractual agreement or consultancy service(s) that will further bring untold hardship on the workers and pensioners of Osun state.”

Commenting further on the issue on Thursday, the State Chairman of the TUC, Comrade Adebowale Adekola, said the government have the right to take inventory.

Adekola, however, insisted that the Labour leaders carrying the mandate of the workers would also protect their followers’ rights

He said, “We are stakeholders in government but we were not briefed about this staff audit. Circulating forms within an organisation without properly informing the leadership of such an institution is unfair.

“No sane human being will tolerate such a move. The government have the power and capacity to do staff audit or take inventory, but we also have the mandate to protect the rights of workers. We should be properly briefed first.”