By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN—GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday warned that the state would not use the taxes of workers to pay workers who chose to stay at home for months strikes, stressing that the government was committed to fully implementing the no work, no pay clause in the law.

Speaking at the 2015/2016 Legal Year of the state’s Judiciary, the governor said the law was clear that a worker who embarked on a strike would forfeit his wage.

It will be recalled that members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, in the state had embarked on a seven-month strike to press home their demand for financial autonomy for the judiciary.

The governor, who said the state was proud of its judicial arm, said: “We in the Executive in Edo State have utmost respect for the Judicial arm on account of the courage and hard work that you have displayed. Under Convention 98 of the International Labour Organisation, ILO, it states clearly that you have a right to go on strike; otherwise, it would be slave labour. But the Trade Union Act is very clear that notwithstanding any reason, if you embark on a strike, you forfeit your wages. That is the law, that is the convention and this convention has been domesticated in our labour laws and I ask you to look at all the provisions taken together in the various Trade Dispute Acts and Amendment Act. You not only forfeit your wages, you forfeit your seniority and you can be dismissed summarily. This is the law and the business of the court is to interpret the law without fear even if the litigant is an officer of the court. The court is not a respecter of its own employees. So, it must dispense justice even if it doesn’t favour  the officers of the High Court and that is what we have taken note to do.

“I asked my lord privately when he was pushing for this case and I put it here. At what point does it become acceptable that we resort to illegal tools in pursuance of legal ends? Can you seek legal ends by resorting to illegal means? That is resorting to self help and if other groups resort to self help, the first casualty will be the judiciary. Survival of the fittest, everybody will go for cutlass. So, I ask that JUSUN must run the union within the provisions of the Trade Union Act and within the provisions of the Trade Dispute Acts. If they exceed those boundaries, there are consequences. I cannot take tax payers money which we have to fight to collect even from senior lawyers, when we have compelled them and get the naira, then I go and give it to a JUSUN worker who is at home on a self-imposed holiday.

“There would be more honour in vacating the office than to make compensation because even the bible says that he who does not work does not deserve to eat.”