Osun State Government has explained that its proposed staff audit was not a witch-hunt or an agenda to sack civil servants in the state.
The leadership of the labour movement in the state had rejected the staff audit, saying such an exercise conducted in the past subjected workers and pensioners to untold hardship.
They also said forms for the audit were being circulated among workers without prior meeting with the Labour leaders and asked that they be properly briefed on the exercise.
But a statement by the spokesperson to the governor, Olawale Rasheed, obtained in Osogbo on Friday, allayed the concerns of the workers and added that the request of the labour leaders to be part of the audit process was being looked into by the government.
The statement further read, “The administration wishes to put it on record that there is no hidden agenda to sack workers through the ongoing staff audit. The deep relationship between Governor Ademola Adeleke and the labour movement is unprecedented in the history of labour and Government in Osun state.
“As a government with labour welfare as the first item on its governance agenda, the unions are reassured that their interest and that of their members are well protected. The request of the labour leadership to be part of the audit process is being looked into by the state government.
“Governor Ademola Adeleke as a due process leader who has forged a close partnership with the labour movement is also the best defender of labour aspirations in the state today. All stakeholders should therefore be rest assured that no anti-labour policy can surface under the watch of the current labour-friendly administration.”