By Raphael Ede
Enugu
Joint Negotiating Council, JNC, of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, has said that despite the industrial harmony existing in Enugu State, civil servants under Sullivan Chime’s administration are the least paid workers in Nigeria, describing what they earn as a ‘slave wage’.
The state Secretary of JNC, Comrade Theo Obasiani, who disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent, said it is regrettable that in spite of their efforts to get a living wage for the workers, the state government had been maintaining poverty rather than alleviating it.
“We are very uncomfortable with what is happening in this state as far as the welfare of workers is concerned. We have been saying that the wage earned by civil servants here is unfair, an unjust wage and the whole thing boils down to poverty maintenance wage. We have tried our best to solve this problem but the government is not willing to address it,” he said.
Obasiani, who was unequivocal on this issue said despite their last discussion with the government, which they believed will end this quagmire, yet the government could not do anything tangible to improve the salary paid to its workers.
The JNC secretary explained that even as federal and some state governments have improved on the salary structures for their workers, Enugu state has remained static, claiming that it is implementing minimum wage bill even when there is nothing to support their claim. This has subjected the workers in the state to perpetual poverty.
“The government claimed it is paying N22,000 as minimum wage against the approved N18, 000 for workers on grade level 1 step 1. We pointed out that they were not because at the end what the worker on that lowest grade level earns is just N18,000. There is nowhere in Enugu where anybody can pay N1,500 for accommodation not even for a one room apartment yet the government pays N1,500 as rent allowance,” he said.
