‘Ekiti won’t slash workers’ pay’

Ekiti State Government has said it will not slash the minimum wage it is paying its workforce despite the financial challenges it is grappling with.

Also, to ensure the smooth payment of the salaries, the state government may decentralise the payment system.

Disclosing this at the weekend when he went on sensitisation tour of Irepodun/Ifelodun and Ekiti South-West Local Government Areas, the State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, said the current minimum wage of N18, 000 was grossly inadequate and that any slash would not augur well for the workers and their dependants.

In a statement in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Idowu Adelusi, the governor said the state government in consultation with the labour unions would agree on the mode of payment.

The governor, who first visited, Igede-Ekiti, said there was no point hiding the financial situation of the state government from the workers.

“I am enjoying your grace for returning me to office and I am not going to take the grace for granted. A governor who hides the true position of things from his people is only deceiving himself. The power of the people is greater than that of the leader.

“I won’t reduce workers’ salaries, the N18, 000 minimum wage is even not enough. I will never hold your money one day extra. The shortfall in the bail-out fund will be redressed,” he said.

The governor also added that a unit would be set up in the Governor’s Office to look into complaints about workers’ welfare.

At Ilawe-Ekiti, following complaints by some workers in the delay in getting their salaries when paid, the governor said a team of experts would be constituted to look at the possibility of decentralising the payment system.

Fayose noted that the need for workers to come to Ado-Ekiti whenever they had complaints about their salaries would be reduced if the system was decentralised.

The governor promised to also look into the welfare of pensioners, saying as soon as the Federal Government releases the remainder of the bailout funds concerning their issue, they would be paid.

The governor used the occasion to tell the workers the financial situation of the state, saying statutory allocations had reduced by over 56 per cent in the last one year.