Abia to commence payment of N18,000 minimum wage 'To send names of unemployed youths to labour minister

Abia State Governor, Theodor Orji,has assured that the state will start implementation of the N18, 000 national minimum wage, saying that workers in the state will start receiving their salary based on the new act very soon.The governor gave the assurance as he called on the Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, to assist the state to employ many of the unemployed youths from the state. He said he would compile and send the names of unemployed graduates to the labour minister.Gov. Orji was speaking when he paid a congratulatory visit to Chief Wogu, for his appointment and most especially his ability to successfully resolve the issue of national minimum wage with labour before it could generate to serious crises.The governor said he promised the Abia State people before the election that he would pay the N18, 000 minimum wage and added that there was no going back on the payment.Gov. Orji stated that what they were waiting for in the state for the payment to take off is for the circular to come out, which he promised will be out very soon.'From the onset, those of us in Abia State said we would pay N18, 000 minimum wage because we know the problem of our workers. There is no going back. For us in Abia State, we are paying N18, 000. What we are waiting is for the circular to come out, as soon as it comes out, we will start payment,' the governor said.Besides, he said he promised before the election that he would promote all civil servants in the state and he pointed out that he had since done that.He said: 'Before the election, I promised to promoted the workers, now, I have done that. I promote all Abia State civil servants to next grade level.'On the issue of ghost workers, he stated that was not carried out the exercise because of the issue of the N18, 000 minimum wage but because of empirical evidence.He explained that the state discovered that while many people left service and people are dying, the wage bill still continued to go up.'What we did on the issue of the ghost workers is not because of the minimum wage but because of empirical evidence. We have seen people die, people left the service and the wage bill continued going up. Then we knew something was wrong and when we checked, we discovered it.'It happens in ministries, and this not peculiar to Abia State alone. We made a survey when we discovered that our wage bill was increasing and we decided to curb it,' he said.
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