Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has approved the payment of N25, 000 for workers and N15, 000 for pensioners as wage award.

With the move, the governor has laid to rest months of speculations and fear of breach of industrial harmony between the government and the workforce.

The governor said the payment, which will take effect from October, will be for six months at an additional cost of N2.2billion to the wage bill of the state.

Makinde made this known in company with labour leaders, including Comrade Kayode Martins (NLC), Comrade Bosun Olabiyi (TUC) and Comrade Olaonipekun Oluwaseun (JNC Public Sector) while addressing workers at the entrance of the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Ibadan.

Other government functionaries including, Special Adviser (Labour Matters), Comrade Adebayo Titilola-Sodo, the Executive Assistant to the governor, Reverend Idowu Ogedengbe, among others, also accompanied the governor during the address.

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The workers had stormed the Governor’s Office as part of the decision taken during a congress yesterday to ensure the issue was resolved once and for all.

Before announcing the figure, Governor Makinde appealed to the workers to show understanding with the state, noting that many other people in the state are also passing through the hardship occasioned by the current economic situation and other sectors that are also begging for attention through the meagre resources of the state.

Speaking with reporters shortly after addressing the workers, Makinde said the additional cost, although is difficult for the state; it is the responsibility of the government to take care of its workforce.

He said: “What I told the workers earlier is that we all understand that it’s a challenging period for us as a nation and as a state you have to look at your pocket and see what we can do and what I told them was that for the wage award, we would give the pensioners N15,000 monthly for the next six months, starting from October, but they also asked that it should start from September, but I don’t know if we have enough money.

“And for workers, we are paying N25,000 to cushion the effect of economic challenges that we are all facing. So, I believe they heard me, I said to them that, this is not a case of the labour against the government, or the government against the labour, we are all in this together and we have to pull together to be able to go through the situation that we find ourselves.”

Reacting, Comrade Martins and Comrade Olabiyi said the announcement laid to rest the entire negotiation processes.