Benue govt approves minimum wage for workers from grade level 01-06

Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom

Benue State Government on Wednesday approved the N30,000.00 minimum wage to its workers from grade level 01 to 06.

The grade level 07 and above are to wait until the government clean up the wage bill.

This was disclosed by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Professor Tony Ijohor, SAN while speaking with newsmen after meeting with labour leaders at government house, Makurdi.

According to the  SSG, “This is something that is already ongoing. And of course, we took consideration of the recession as well as other factors.

“For grade level 01 to 06, we will implement the minimum wage in line with the federal government directive.

“But for  Level 07 and above, that has to be stepped down until we meet again until we clean the table.

The SSG said that the implementation may commence anytime likely in December.

Professor Ijohor said that  Labor leaders and unions were part of the cleanup committee where they talked about excessive allowances that certain categories of workers are not entitled to.

He said that the clean up would be a comprehensive exercise.

The  State Chairman Joint Public Service Council Negotiation 1,2 and 3, Ojotu Ojema said the committee adopted the Federal Government chart.

He said that from grade level 07 and the above, the government offered 500 naira addition for all categories of workers.

He added, “When we looked at that, we said it is quite unrealistic but when we met with the Governor, he raised two (2) fundamental issues, that is, recession and downfall on monthly allocation and told us that, a committee has been put in place to clean up the payroll of government.

“The governor has given us an assurance that the government will get to the root of the wage bill. If this is done, a lot of money will be saved. So, we told the government that instead of going back to tell our members that 500 naira has been added to their salaries, they should keep that in view pending when we get out of recession and the payroll is cleaned up and then we can come back and look at realistic ways of resolving the consequential adjustment.

“One good thing about labour is that when you give us a statement and you are not living up to expectation, we have an option to call you and remind you and when not satisfied, then we will use our last resort,  that is a strike.