Stephen Ukandu Umuahia
Abia State Government as well as the state leadership of the Organised Labour, has faulted the inclusion of Abia among the states defaulting in the payment of the new national minimum wage.
According to the State Government and the Organised Labour, listing Abia as one of the defaulting states, is misleading.
Speaking at a joint press conference Sunday at the Government House Umuahia, the State Government and the State leadership of the Organised Labour said that Abia started implementing the new minimum wage since October.
The press conference came on the heels of the threat by the national leadership of Labour to mobilise workers for a strike from Monday over the non implementation of the new minimum wage by 14 state governments.
The State Chairman of NLC, Comrade Ogbonnaya Okoro; and his Trade Union Congress, TUC counterpart, Comrade Ihechi Eneogwe, described Abia’s inclusion among the defaulting states as “erroneous.”
Okoro said: “We stayed up between 7 pm to 5 am to put up a salary structure of Abia State workers and it has to do with consequential adjustment. Then let me categorically say that Abia State implemented the minimum wage in October, but it did not favour all the workers.
“It favoured workers between Level 1 and 7. Then from 8 to 16 were not properly taken care of, and when we noticed that anomaly, the Organised Labour wrote a letter, reminding the government that we have not tidied up the loose ends and that there is the need for workers between Level 8 and 16 to be better placed because, immediately that minimum wage was implemented in October, those in Level 7 were taking higher wage than those in Level 10. Because it was like that, we know that the governor has the milk of human kindness.
“He wanted the lower ones to come up so that they can be able to take care of their families. But inasmuch as his good wishes is stated, he did not remove the senior officers that attended universities. The essence of that university is that you cannot place someone in Level 3 with a Level 15 or Level 16 officer as a Director. So, for us to tidy the loose end, we now observed that these things were not properly done.
“The Organised Labour has written back to the government for the needful to be done and the governor in his good feelings, accepted that there will be a reverse and also directed his officers to meet with the Organised Labour, so that we tidy up, so that those marginalised will have their salaries updated and everybody will be happy and that is what we have started doing since Thursday last week.”
Contributing, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Pastor Caleb Ajagba, said Abia had no issues with her labour force.
“For anybody to say that Abia State has not implemented the minimum wage, it is not true. We have started implementation but we are trying to put those grey areas in order, so that senior staff from Level 8 to 16 are given a sigh of relief. For anybody to put Abia State among those that have not implemented it is a wrong impression. So, we want to correct this that the government of Abia State has implemented but we are trying to correct the grey areas. That is our position.”
On his part, the TUC Chairman said: “We held a NEC meeting last week on the minimum wage, the categories of minimum wage that we agreed on were on states that have not started paying, states that have started and nothing thas been done, states that have started and the state governor gave directive that only those he appointed will be at the panel, states that have started but the governor told them this is what I will pay, and states that have started and then the governor decided that he will use his own discretion to implement.
“Abia State fell into one of them erroneously,” he said.
Earlier in his speech, the Chief of Staff to the state governor, Pastor Caleb Ajagba who spoke on behalf of the Alex Otti team described the meeting with Organised Labour as a family meeting, stating, “We have never had any misunderstanding or issues that can tears us apart.
“We have always progressed in the spirit of collective bargaining of give and take. Otti has always demonstrated his commitment to ensuring industrial harmony and the welfare of the workers receive priority attention. It is on record that Abia State was one of the states that signified intention and had to contact Organised Labour when the Federal Government concluded the issue of minimum wage. Abia is one of the first states, if not the first state that contacted Organised Labour.
“The Organised Labour responded and said we should give them some time to be able to get the go ahead from their headquarters and of course, we gave them some time. We started this discussion between September and October this year and we rounded off deliberations around October 26th and the first payment was made the same October with October salaries on the implementation.
“After the payment was made, the Organised Labour made some observations which they communicated back to us and we also, in the same spirit of being a very responsible government, we assured them that it will be looked into. They came back to confirm that they are ready to continue with the issues they identified, about deductions.
“So it is a misinformation that Abia State has not started the implementation of the new minimum wage and Abia workers have been paid their first salaries according to the new minimum wage in their October salaries and that has also been done in this last November.
“It is not true that Abia State is one of those states that have not started the implementation of the new national minimum wage. Abia State remains one of the Labour-friendly states in Nigeria.”
