Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
Ovedhe Hezekiah – Warri
Delta state government has disclosed her intention to revert to the old minimum wage of N18,000 for civil servants in the state.
The agreement for take-off of the decision was signed by the State Government with the state leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) after series of meetings with the State Executive Council (SEC).
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The meeting which was witnessed by the excos of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress, TUC, and Joint Negotiation Council, JNC, deliberated on the state inability to continue to shoulder full salaries which the state Government said was caused by COVID-19 pandemic which has drastically affected both the Internal revenue and the federal allocation.
Governor Okowa in the meeting appealed to them that the state government can not continue to sustain the state wage bill and opted for three option which included;
Option 1: that cooperative and other deductions will not be remitted for the next six months to meet up with salaries.
Option 2: that grade levels 1- 6 are to receive the new minimum wage while from grade levels 7-17 are to revert to the old wage and the difference to be paid when the economy improves. In other words they are to sacrifice their percentage increase for the period.
The third option was to retrench some staff in other to pay salaries.
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It was unanimously agreed that Option 2 be adopted which is to scrap the new minimum wage and revert to the old wage of grade levels 7-17 while the political office holders forfeits 25 percent of their basic salaries as sacrifice.
In a related development, the State Governor, Sen Ifeanyi Okowa has said that elected and political appointees including himself, his deputy, Deacon Kingsley Otuaro and the Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori will forfeit between 20 and 25 per cent of their salaries.
