From LAYI OLANREWAJU, Ilorin
The Kwara State Chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), has promised to restore the dignity of labour force and optimum productivity of the civil service come if elected to power in the state in 2023.
The Party in a statement that was issued in Ilorin and signed by the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Tunji Moronfoye, said that “the state would witness a new dawn in the restoration of the integrity and dignity of labour as part of strategy to enhance the productivity of the labour force in the state.”
The party observed “with mirth the antics of the ruling Kwara State’s All Progressives Congress (APC) regime to put the state’s civil servants into another state of calamity.”
The statement said that, “the APC government upon inauguration three and half years ago promised to embark on harmonisation of the civil servants salaries with that of neighboring states but failed to do it.
“Apart from this, the government promised a full payment of all salary arrears, plus gratuity arrears, within 100 days of the inauguration of their regime, at the local governments and immediate gratuity payment within the same month of all retiring civil servants, if elected but to no avail.
“Aren’t these the same Kwara State civil servants that were told that they were a very small fraction of the Kwara State population, that they couldn’t hold the Kwara State APC regime to ransome?
“Was it not these same Kwara State civil servants that the governor refused to meet their leadership for over a year, when there was need to negotiate the consequential adjustment to their N30,000 minimum wage?
“Was it not the same Kwara State civil servants that the state APC regime sued to industrial court for protesting against the injustice visited upon them by non-payment of the minimum wage by the state governor after it was adopted by the federal government?”
The statement, therefore, said that “we at the PDP promised that, the state civil servants dignity and integrity would be restored come next elections if elected so as to change the past narratives ideas of haunting labour force into positive ideas that would enhance the productivity and growth of labour force in the state.”
