Odahiekwu Ogunde, Yenagoa
State Governor, Douye Diri, has set up an 18-member committee to look into the issues of promotion and minimum wage raised by labour unions in the interest of industrial harmony in the state.
He inaugurated the committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Konbowei Benson, during a meeting with local government Chairmen and representatives of the unions in Government House, Yenagoa.
The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, charged the committee to determine the financial implications involved in implementing the new minimum wage at the local government level.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Deputy Governor, Mr Doubara Atasi, noted that the committee, which has the Chief of Staff, Government House, Chief Benson Agadaga, as Co-Chairman was given three weeks to submit its report.
According to the statement, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government Administration, Mrs Ebiere Igodo Adeh, is to serve as an automatic member and Secretary of the committee.
The state chapters of National Union of Local Government Employees, Medical and Health Workers Union and the Nigeria Union of Teachers are to nominate two representatives each as members.
Other members include two representatives each from State Universal Basic Education Board, All Local Governments of Nigeria as well as Local Government Treasurers and Head of Personnel Management.
The committee is also expected to have two representatives from the Local Government Service Commission and one representative from the Ministry of Local Government Administration.
Diri specifically urged the committee to work out the additional funds required to implement both promotion and new minimum wage on the one hand and new minimum wage without promotion on the other.
The governor said, “This committee is to take a comprehensive look at what is entailed in implementing the new minimum wage for local government employees, which comprises the health workers and primary school teachers and not only the traditional council workers.
“You are to work out the additional money that is required to implement the minimum wage with promotion and without promotion and what is coming into each local government in terms of allocation.”
Diri, who urged the LGA chairmen to make prudence and due process their watchwords, said they would be held responsible for payroll racketeering and other grave infractions that will be discovered in any council.
He wondered why government’s financial obligations to pensioners keep increasing due to retirement but without a corresponding reduction in the wage bill of active workers in the councils.
Describing this trend as unacceptable, Diri promised to leave no stone unturned in his determination to sanitise the local government system.
In their separate submissions, the state Chairman of ALGON, Nigeria Kia and his NULGE counterpart, Akpos Ekiegha, pleaded with the state government to revert to the pre-2016 recession funding system of 60-40 per cent.
They noted that if the state government shouldered 40 per cent of the total wage bill of the local councils, it would enable them to implement the new minimum wage to council workers with little or no challenge.