Florence Uwaeme
The Government of Rivers State says it has agreed with the Rivers State Chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), to address all pending labour concerns in the state.
The Secretary to the State Government, Dr Tammy Danagogo, said that an agreement on the implementation of the National Minimum Wage of N30,000.00 (Thirty Thousand Naira) which took effect on 1st January, 2020 has been executed.
The Secretary to the State Government disclosed this in a press statement after a meeting between State Government and Labour in Port Harcourt on Friday, 12th February, 2021.
According to the Secretary to the State Government, a Tripartite Committee to undertake detailed discussions of all outstanding issues has also been set up.
The SSG said, “Rivers State Government has agreed and commenced implementation of the payment of check-off dues and the payment of arrears of salaries of Health workers in the Rivers State Public Service who participated in the sympathy strike of 2017 under the auspices of JOHESU.
“Other issues which were raised by Labour such as: Need for payment of arrears of minimum wage, Promotion of civil Servants from 2012, Payment of gratuity to pensioners, Payment of arrears of salaries to some civil servants who were not paid their February and March, 2016 salaries due to the aborted 2016 biometric verification exercise etc,” he said.
According to the SSG, several other matters will be discussed in details by the tripartite committee.
“The tripartite committee is to commence sitting immediately for a period of six weeks after which a report will be submitted to the Government,” he said.
The meeting was attended by the Head of Rivers State Civil Service, Rufus Godwins, Esq. On the part of Labour Union were the Chairman of the State Labour Congress, Mrs Beatrice Itubo, Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Pastor Jonah Austin, Chairman of the Joint Public Negotiating Council, Mr Emecheta Chukwu and other labour leaders.
The tripartite committee will resume sitting next week.
