OSUN State civil servants have rejected a plan by the state government to cut their wages by 50% as part of a plan to enable it clear the backlog of salary arrears which have mounted uncontrollably over the last seven months.  

About half of Nigeria's 36 states currently owe salary arrears, with Osun being one of the worst affected owing about seven months' wages. Last week, the state government started paying November and December 2014 salaries but with limited funds has been unable to clear the rest, so decided to pay only half of owed wages. 

However, the mover has been stoutly rejected by the workers and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Comrade Adekomi Jacobs, the chairman of the Osun State chapter of the NLC, said the resolve of the state government to cut the salary of the work force in the state by 50% from January 2015 was unacceptable, satanic and a means to frustrate the work force in the state. 

He also described the government's plan as wicked, maintaining that it was suicide for any government to arrive at such position after he had failed in his constitutional responsibilities for the past eight months. Rejecting the move, the NLC insisted that never would the entire workforce in the state accept it. 

Comrade Jacobs maintained that the situation that befell the state was as a result of its systematic failure and any attempt to cut the salaries of workers by even one per cent would be vehemently resisted and would lead to unimaginable chaos. Recounting the calamities that had befallen members of the union as a result of non-payment of salaries, he said almost 350 deaths of pensioners were recorded as a result of inability of the government to pay pension arrears. 

According to Comrade Jacobs, the union would not relent until government acceded to the demands of the workers and pensioners. They are demanding the full payment of all their salary arrears.