In commemoration of this years Workers’ Day, the Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has approved N40,000 as new minimum wage for Edo workers.
Governor Obaseki made the announcement while delivering his 2022 Workers’ Day speech at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.
He stated that his government would continue to prioritize the welfare of Edo workers, equipping them with the capacity and environment to deliver efficient and quality service to the people.
Read him: “As we all know, the minimum of N30,000 can barely sustain a family. It will be immoral and mindless of us to continue to pretend that we do not know that our workers are suffering.
“The government of Edo has now decided to review the minimum wage for Edo workers from N30,000 to N40,000 a month. Undoubtedly, Edo is the first state since the current outbreak of coronavirus to take this initiative.”
Governor Obaseki said that “Even though we would have loved to pay more, we hope that this little adjustment would enable us to cushion the impact of the inflation that we are faced with. There is no doubt that the financial implications will be heavy and put another burden on the government.
“But as a government, we are prepared to make the sacrifices so that the workers can live a better life. Your welfare is our number one priority.”
Reassuring the people of his government’s relentless support to senior citizens in the state, Obaseki said that the hardship experienced by pensioners and other senior citizens as a result of rising cost of food and other items were lamentable.
He stated, “I am particularly interested in our senior citizens because they are one of the most vulnerable in our society. We took interest in payments of outstanding pensions to our pensioners in spite of the fact that these pensions were held by the previous administration.
“In view of the prevailing economic circumstances, I have now approved, effective this May, the agreement we reached with the Union of Pensioners that the harmonized amount would be paid from May 2022.
“Government is aware of the difficulties faced by the pensioners due to the non-payment of pension and gratuities to pensioners by previous governments. This responsibility is huge and it will require a substantial part of our resources to settle them.
“However, we are not a government that is known for running away from challenges; we will look for a way to tackle these challenges,” the governor said.
Obaseki urged workers in the state to take advantage of opportunities offered by his administration in the agricultural sector to increase food production in the country.
In his address, the state
Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Odion Olaye, called on the federal government to put machinery in place to arrest the high rate of insecurity, instability in the economy, unemployment and hunger as they were capable of disintegrating the nation.
Olaye whose speech was read by the Secretary of his union, Mr Barry Imade, said that the organised labour strongly believed that when there were jobs opportunities in any economy, such economy would certainly experience growth in both human and infrastructural development.
He stressed that the state- owned institutions were in a state of abandonment and if nothing drastic was done to revitalize them, they might soon go into extinction.
He added that the 65 and 35 per cent subvention policy had strangulated them financially and academically.
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