Ekiti State Governor Biodun Oyebanji has said the payment of wage awards to civil servants and pensioners in the state will continue until a position is taken on the proposed new minimum wage in the country.
He said the committee set up by the federal government is still discussing with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on the matter.
The governor made the announcement yesterday in Ado Ekiti during the Workers’ Day celebrations held at Ekiti Parapo pavilion.
Oyebanji said, “I don’t want to say or promise anything I won’t be able to follow through. Federal general and NLC are discussing the new minimum wage. I want us to have a very clear position on this. We will continue the payment of the wage award and our other intervention pending the time a position is taken on the new minimum wage.”
While sympathising with the workers on hardship they are facing due to the current fuel scarcity, he said, “I share your pain and that of other Ekiti Kete. As a government, we are working behind the scene to ensure that bring supply to Ekiti State but the challenge is , the product is a bit scarce but we got assurance from NNPlc that the product will continue to move and will shall get a lot of supply into Ekiti state .And I am told that a lot of product had got into the country, to be rest assured that we will get supply to Ekiti state.”
In his address, the NLC chairman, Ekiti State Council, Comrade Kolapo Olatunde urged the governor to act promptly in the implementation of new minimum wage whenever it is signed into law.
Olatunde who lamented the hike in the electricity tariff said the classification of the electricity consumers into bands is also unfathomable.
“There is no corresponding improvement in the power generation, supply and distribution. It is a deliberate attempt not only to impoverish Nigerians but also to sniff life out of small/ large scale businesses and the industrial sector, hence, the policy must be reverted to the status quo”.
