BY GBENGA OLARINOYE
OSOGBO— INDUSTRIAL crisis in Osun state over the implementation of the N18.000 new minimum wage has taken a new twist as labour leaders in the state have dissociated themselves from the N19,001 minimum wage announced by the government last week.

They declared yesterday to continue with their ongoing strike until the government paid the minimum wage across the board.

At a briefing on behalf of other labour leaders, Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Comrade Francis Adetunji, faulted Governor Rauf Aregbesola stance on the implementation of the minimum wage and said the workers could not be intimated.

Adetunji accused the government of using police to harass and intimidate them, saying “we never experience what we are getting from Aregbesola’s government as labour leaders even during the military rule in the process of fighting for our rights in the state

He dissociated the labour unions from the N19,001 minimum wage announced by the state government, saying the labour unions did not enter into any negotiation with the government before it approved the N19001 as minimum wage from levels 01 to 07.

The TUC’s Chairman said the state could conveniently pay the N18,000 minimum wage across board considering the average income of the state put at N3.9 billion monthly.

He argued that only N1.8 billion was required to implement the new wage across board.

Adetunji while giving a breakdown of the monthly income of the state from January to June 2011, claimed the federal allocation and Value Added Tax alone stood at N3.5 billion monthly and N4.2 million Internally Generated Revenue.

According to him, the remaining N2.1 billion could successfully execute fiscal development projects in the state aside money accruable from the excess crudeand ecological fund.

He said “what is in the coffers of the state government is enough to pay what the 15,000 workers of the state are demanding for.”

He dismissed insinuations that the labour leaders were being by opposition parties in the state, claiming that the government lied to traditional rulers and religious leaders on the income and expenditure of the state.