By Tosin Olatokunbo
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo governor says his government will priotise the welfare of workers in the state. The governor disclosed this on Sunday after he approved N40,000 as the new minimum wage for the state’s civil servants.
Several months after the federal government had approved the new minimum some states governments have yet to pay the new wage to their workers.
The state governments have insisted that they cannot pay the wage due to current economic situation in the country. Many states had yet to pay the old minimum wage of N18,000 close watchers of event say, as many others are owing worker arrears of salaries.
On this basis, critics of the Edo helmsman says the governor is just trying to gain popularity amidst recent bad ratings for his government, by unrealistically increasing the minimum wage to the level that the state cannot afford to pay.
Speaking on Sunday to mark the yearly Workers’ Day celebration Governor Obaseki said the new minimum wage with help the workers to perform well in their duties.
He said inflation has reduced the take home pay of workers and that the government needed to wade in in order to ensure that workers live a ‘better lie”.
The governor also promised to clear arrears of pensions owed retired workers from the state within a short period, noting that the state government has already set in place modalities to reach agreement with the senior citizens as pensioners are called over the issue.
According to him, “As we all know, the minimum of N30,000 can barely sustain a family. It will be immoral and mindless of us to continue to pretend that we do not know that our workers are suffering.
“The government of Edo has now decided to review the minimum for Edo workers from N30,000 to N40,000 a month. Undoubtedly, Edo is the first state since the current outbreak of coronavirus to take this initiative.
“Even though we would have loved to pay more, we hope that this little adjustment would enable us to cushion the impact of the inflation that we are faced with. There is no doubt that the financial implications will be heavy and put another burden on the government,” he said.
“But as a government, we are prepared to make the sacrifices so that the workers can live a better life. Your welfare is our number one priority.”
“I am particularly interested in our senior citizens because they are one of the most vulnerable in our society. We took interest in payments of outstanding pensions to our pensioners in spite of the fact that these pensions were held by the previous administration,”
“In view of the prevailing economic circumstances, I have now approved, effective this May, the agreement we reached with the Union of Pensioners that the harmonized amount would be paid from May 2022.
“Government is aware of the difficulties faced by the pensioners due to the non-payment of pension and gratuities to pensioners by previous governments,” Obaseki said.
