The governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Umo Eno has rescinded his earlier decision to commence the payment of the new minimum wage this month (December) untill the completion of staff verification.
He stated this at the Christmas Carols service held in Uyo at the weekend.
Recall that the governor had recently approved N80,000 as a new minimum wage for workers in the state, N10,000 higher than the N70,000 national wage approved by the federal government.
While signing an agreement with the state branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state, the governor agreed to commence payment in December with November arrears to come within the first quarter of 2025.
However, he said at the weekend the December was no longer feasible but offered to pay 13th month salary to workers.
The governor said no one would compel him to implement the agreement this month and dared labour to call out the workers for strike.
“We had a meeting with labour and at that meeting – tense meeting. We had made some agreements. They wanted the new minimum wage to start in November and I said to them that s fine but we need to do verification. If they give me the verification today we will start paying in November.
“So we agreed. That is the agreement – agreement is agreement but tonight as your governor, we will pay the 13th month we have already calculated.
“But I also told them it is a give and take. If we start from November then the 13th month I had announced to cushion the effect will not hold.
“Because we would not start paying the new structure even though it starts from November we would not start paying until we finished (staff) verification.
“Nobody will force me to do that. I must know the number of workers that are in the civil service in the state. And so Labour gives that to me tonight we start paying tomorrow.
“So don’t let anybody confuse you if they tell you to come and block government house. Block it, work will still go on. You must understand that we must do the right thing,” he said.
