N18,000 Minimum Wage inadequate – Fayose
By; Oladele Adedayo, Ado-Ekiti.
Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose has vowed that his government will not slash the minimum wage it is paying its workforce despite the financial challenges the state is battling with.
Giving the assurance weekend when he embarked on sensitisation tour of Irepodun/Ifelodun and Ekiti South-West Local Government Areas of the state, Governor Fayose, said the current minimum wage of N18,000 was grossly inadequate and that any slash would not augur well for the workers and their dependants.
“I won’t reduce workers’ salaries, the N18,000 minimum wage is even not enough. I will never hold your money one day extra. The shortfall in the bail-out fund will be redressed.
“I am enjoying your grace for returning me to office and I am not going to take the grace for granted. A governor who hides the true position of things from his people is only deceiving himself. The power of the people is greater than that of the leader” he stated.
Fayose said to ensure the smooth payment of salaries, the state government may decentralise the payment system. He said the state government would work out ways that the government and the labour unions would agree on the mode of payment.
The governor also added that a unit would be set up in the Governor’s Office to look into complaints about workers’ welfare.
Workers who contributed, said instead of paying workers in batches, statutory allocations for two months could be merged for all workers to be paid at once.
At Ilawe-Ekiti, following complaints by some workers in the delay in getting their salaries when paid, the governor said a team of experts would be constituted to look at the possibility of decentralising the payment system.
Fayose noted that the need for workers to come to Ado-Ekiti whenever they had complaints about their salaries would be reduced if the system was decentralised.
The governor promised to also look into the welfare of pensioners, saying as soon as the Federal Government releases the remaining of the bail-out funds concerning their issue, they would be paid.
The governor used the occasion to tell the workers the true financial situation of the state, saying statutory allocations had reduced by over 56 per cent in the last one year.
