OGBC workers begin strike over unpaid salaries

NLC protest fuel price hike in Abuja (3)

Workers of the Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation (OGBC) in Abeokuta on Wednesday started an indefinite strike over unpaid four months’ salaries.

The workers arrived at the station around 5am and locked the studio and offices to prevent the general manager and top management staff from having access to their offices.

Led by Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (nuj), Abiodun Ogundipe, and Chairman, Radio, Television and Theatre Workers Union (RATTAWU), Ayo Aina, the workers had issued a three-day warning to the management to pay the salaries.

Ogundipe told NAN that there was no going back on the strike until their demands were met.

He said the Ogun State Head of Service, Abayomi Sobande, had visited the workers and appealed to them, promising that something would be done.

Ogundipe said: “Sobande said we should allow for skeletal services pending the time they would get back to us before the close of work.

“We are not going back on the strike.

“The strike has not been suspended, we will continue until our demands are met.”

The workers had during a press conference on Friday threatened an indefinite strike from Wednesday over non-payment of outstanding salaries.

They said that in spite of issuing three different notices to the management; nothing was done to pay the outstanding salaries.

Apart from the arrears of salaries, the workers are also claiming that some pension deductions from 2012 till date, totalling about N50 million, had not been remitted.

The workers said deductions to the National Housing Fund of over N2 million were not remitted.

The workers, however, commended Governor Ibikunle Amosun for increasing the monthly subvention to the station from N3.5 million to N10 million.

Some armed police officers were seen at the entrance of the station.