Kwara Spending N1.3bn Monthly On Workers’ Subsidy Palliatives — Commissioner

Kwara State government has said it’s spending additional N1,392,135,000 every month on payment of palliatives to civil servants in the state since the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government.

The government rolled out the figure following agitations for more welfare packages by the leadership of the joint labour unions in the state.

The organised labour had given the state government a 14- day ultimatum to meet its demands or face industrial action.

But, the state government in a statement signed by the commissioner for Communication, Mrs Bola Olukoju, explained that,”since the wake of and since the removal of subsidy by the Federal Government, the administration has committed additional N1,392,135,000.00 every month to payment of palliatives to the workers alone.”

“This administration, despite being among the third lowest recipients of federal allocations, has fewer rivals in the country in terms of prompt payment of salary and general welfare of workers,” Olukoju added.

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She, however, restated the state government’s commitment to the promotion of the welfare of workers and the people of the state.

The commissioner added:” As things stand today at the state level, an average of 74.06% of federal allocation to the state goes into payment of salaries and allowances of workers alone. This does not include the cost of providing government services or any public emergency. At the local government level, between 80% and 95% of their monthly allocations go into paying workers’ salary alone.

“This leaves just a pittance for the rest of the population and developmental projects. It is worse at the local government level. This often forces the government to resort to different financial strategies, including loans, to maintain or expand existing infrastructure and develop new ones to ensure socioeconomic growth and human capital development.

“Regardless, the administration understands the critical roles that workers play in the implementation of projects, policies, and programmes of government, and will continue to pay attention to the welfare of workers in a sustainable way. To this end, the government is already doing a lot of reviews to gradually accommodate the demands.”

While urging the labour unions to embrace dialogue and continue to reciprocate the goodwill of the government over the years in the overall interest of the taxpayers and the general public, Olukoju disclosed that, “Already, the Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abdulkadir Mahe has been asked to initiate a new round of dialogue with the unions.

The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Muritala Saheed Olayinka, who addressed a media briefing on Tuesday alongside his counterparts in Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Tunde Joseph and Joint Negotiation Council (JNC), Comrade Saliu Suleiman, in Ilorin, the state capital listed some of the grievances of workers as non-implementation of N35,000 wage award for all categories of workers in the state following fuel subsidy removal, refusal to domesticate and implement 40 percent peculiar allowance in line with the approval of the federal government, non-implementation of consequential adjustment to pensioners since the approval of the current new minimum wage in 2019, unwillingness to pay local government workers outstanding arrears and non-implementation of 100 percent Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) and 100 percent hazard allowance for health workers at local government level.

Others include outstanding arrears of promotion for 2020, 2021 and 2022, inadequate funding of our state-owned tertiary institutions, unwillingness to absorb and proper placement of Kwara Hotel workers without any condition and proper placement of the redeployed Kwara Water Corporation Staff into the core civil service.

The NLC chairman said the labour movement had written many letters to the state government on the demands of workers without any positive response from the government.