Minimum Wage: 108 Unity Colleges’ Auxiliary Workers Lament Poor Emoluments

Over 108 auxiliary employees of the Federal Government College (FGC), Ikot Ekpene, in the Ikot Ekpene local government area of Akwa Ibom State, have expressed anger over being neglected in the implementation of the new N70,000 minimum wage regime.

The affected workers, LEADERSHIP learnt, were hired to fill the void created by insufficient regular staff in the teaching and non – teaching departments, and paid from the terminal charges generated by the Parents/Teachers’ Association (PTA).

Speaking on behalf of the aggrieved workers, one of the affected staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity lamented that “since we were engaged, what we collect every month is just pittance, a monthly handout that can’t even take a single worker home, not to talk of family people with children, ” she explained.

Checks revealed that the highest paid ad-hoc staff in the teaching category earns N40,000; the least teacher earns N30,00, while the non -teaching workers in the food, hostel and administration sections earn N25,000 monthly stipends.

It was gathered that the PTA Chairman, Dr. John Ekere Etim, had, at various meetings with the college’s management, staff, and parents, assured that a new wage regime for the affected workers would be implemented in line with the new N70,000 minimum wage structure as soon as parents complied with paying the new PTA levies as directed by the Federal Ministry of Education.

The ministry had directed all Unity Colleges across the country to effect a new PTA levy from the hitherto N5,000 per term, to between N10 and N12,000, urging parents to bargain with the PTA leadership to arrive at either N10,000 or N12,000.

The decision by the Federal Ministry of Education, according to the school management, became necessary “in order to augment the welfare packages of the auxiliary workers in the College.”
But a parent, Victor Effiong, regretted that “after parents had agreed to pay the N12,000 PTA levy, the PTA Chairman, Dr. Etim, failed to augment the salary of the affected workers.

“We voted him based on his mature and elderly outlook as an academic, but we are worried that he is putting up this dissonant disposition towards the welfare of the workers who are teaching and taking care of our children.

“His tenure is ending this October, 2025, and we must be on a lookout for his plans in case he’s trying to end his tenure with bad record of fraud which he must answer for, even outside office because we parents are ready to go after him,” he warned.

“We’re over 180 auxiliary staff, both teaching and non-teaching, because the current chairman employed his son, friends, in-laws and wife, but the wife recently resigned for another job elsewhere.

“The school management always has a briefing every Monday and Friday.
Last Friday, during briefing, the teachers paid by the PTA asked the principal questions about their present condition concerning the minimum wage issue.
And he said that the question should be answered by the PTA Executive.
But Mr Oshionebo, the current PTA secretary, shockingly replied that the issue has been resolved.

“Please, we are asking the PTA Chairman, why he pleaded with parents to pay the N12,000 PTA levy to enable him align our pay with the new minimum wage, and what is happening with the money as he is not willing to pay us?” one of the affected workers queried.

“In respect of the PTA staff welfare package issue, there was a meeting of PTA Exco/parents and staff on the 30th of November 2024, presided by the Chairman of PTA, FGC Ikot Ekpene, and the agenda of the meeting was to discuss and appeal to parents to pay the new N12,000 levy to enable them increase the take -home of the auxiliary workers since the federal government is yet to absorb us as regular staff.

“The PTA Chairman had on that very day promised to pay to the least worker on the PTA payroll, but to our greatest surprise, even when the parents had paid beyond the stipulated N10,000, the Chairman refused to keep to his promise by having another meeting on the 29th May, 2025 with PTA staffs and announced that he would only add extra N15,000 to our various salary levels.

“He deceived us that the rest of the money would be given to the principal to fix some school classrooms and other properties damaged recently by a rainstorm. But the federal government through the Federal Ministry of Education, NDDC, Central Bank, and Akwa Ibom government have already intervened.

“We see this as a channel for them to take money for themselves from the PTA account since his tenure in office is going to end by October. Please, we need urgent help to rescue us as the federal government has yet to make good its promise to absorb us,” a non-teaching staff member who said she has spent a couple of years collecting only N25,000 stipend lamented.