States yet to commence payment of wage award to cushion the effect of subsidy pain may be in for a raw deal.
Labour centre – Trade Union Congress (TUC) – has expressed its intention to take on such states.
As part of measures to mitigate the effect of petrol subsidy withdrawal, the Federal Government and states have introduced many measures, one of which is the wage award.
The Federal Government has been paying its workers N35,000 monthly for five months.
Not less than 14 states have been paying amounts ranging from N10,000 to N35,000 for worker.
On Monday in Minna, Niger State, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appealed to the states that have yet to pay to emulate the Federal Government to key in, pending the conclusion of work by the Tripartite Committee on New Minimum Wage.
A day after the President’s appeal, Governor Umaru Bago announced that Niger State workers would from this month begin to earn N20,000 wage award.
Kwara, Gombe and Rivers states are on the list of states paying the wage award.
While Rivers is paying N30,000, Kwara and Gombe are paying N10,000 each.
The addition of the three states and Niger, takes the list of the states paying the wage award to 14.
The Nation on Wednesday reported 10 states as paying. These are: Lagos (N35,000), Ekiti (15,000), Oyo (N25,000), Osun (15,000), Ogun (10,000), Ondo (35,000), Enugu (25,000), Ebonyi (10,000), Adamawa (10,000) and Jigawa (10,000).
TUC President Festus Osifo, who commended the 14 states, said it was worrisome that others had not followed suit.
He wondered why the governors of such states were not paying the largesse, despite increased revenue allocation to them.
Last month, the three tiers of government (federal, states and councils) shared over N1 trillion from the Federation Account.
Osifo, who spoke exclusively with The Nation in Abuja, said: “We are meeting soon to deliberate on that.
“We have noted that few states like Rivers are paying N30,000 and above. Most other states negotiated with the respective state councils and paid between N15,000 to N25,000 while many others are not paying.
Gombe:
The Director-General (Press Affairs) of the Gombe State Government, Ismaila Uba Misilli, said yesterday that the state is paying the wage award.
In a statement, he said: “We wish to state categorically that Gombe State is in the forefront of addressing the challenges faced by civil servants in the aftermath of the fuel subsidy removal.
“Gombe State was one of the first states in Nigeria to implement a wage award for civil servants in response to the economic hardships experienced.”
Rivers
Rivers State Government has implemented the wage award.
Governor Siminialayi Fubara began to pay worker employed by the state government N30, 000 shortly after he assumed office last year.
However, workers under the Local Government hire were not immediately included in the arrangement, but he has issued a new directive to council chairmen to also implement it same in their various councils.
Kwara:
Kwara state Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq is currently paying N10,000 to its workers.
The government is also paying N10,000 each to students of Kwara state indigenes.
The governor began payment of the wage award to workers in August last year. He commenced that of the students in September.
