Gov. David Umahi rejects calls for minimum wage review.

 

The Governor of Ebonyi state,David Umahi says the calls for upward review of the minimum wage,would place the states under further financial burden.

That the current economic realities in the country, which had made it difficult for many states to the N18,000 minimum wage, increasing the amount to N56,000 would put the states under immense financial burden.

Admitting that  government workers were poorly paid, however, lamented that the level of productivity of civil servants was lower than what they currently earned.

According to him,“When 80 per cent of the budget of a state and sometimes 100 per cent is used to pay workers’ salaries, then the questions we should ask is what are the workers doing? Because you must have some money for capital projects; that is the essence of the workers in the first place.

“The point is that no state can pay that N56,000 minimum wage amount. Probably, only Lagos can pay and so what is the need of talking about a new minimum wage when states, as it is today, cannot pay salaries. So that’s my position.”

“What I will advocate is to look into the affairs of workers by allowing them to key into entrepreneurship programmes of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bank of Industry, and then be trained in small-scale industries and businesses, and this will make them earn more and be happier,”

The NLC, through its General Secretary Dr.peter Ozo -Eson has been quick to react to this position.
He stated:  “the governor is entitled to his opinion, but we are not deterred by that statement. We agree that the tripartite committee should go on and bring out its recommendations. We agree with the steps the Federal Government has taken.

“The governor should first put his house in order. A disgruntled workforce cannot be productive. So, if there is a problem with productivity in his state, he should look within.”