Lorine Emenike
The Trade Union Congress in Rivers state has re-elected comrade AUSTIN JONAH to serve the union as chairman for another 3 years.
Austin Jonah is expected to pilot the affairs of the 6th state administrative council elected on the 23rd of July 2019, with the following members
Austin Jonah State Chairman
Dr Chris Mbata state Vice Chairman
Chima Charles Igwe JP State Secretary
EBI Agbozu D state Assistant Secretary
Ngozi Uadiale secretary Women Commission
Beatrice Fombo State Treasurer
Alex Amadi Financial Secretary
Cyril NWEK State Auditor
John Ogaba State Publicity Secretary
ADEKU Abigail State Woman Leader
Hyginus Chika Onuegbu Ex-officio
During the Triennial delegate conference, the TUC said it has lost confidence in the manner with which the Federal government is handling the adjustment arising from the minimum wage increase.
Jonah in his speech at the delegate conference with the theme” The Impact of stress on Employees Productivity, performance and turnover: Implications on the prosperity of Nigeria” said labour leaders view the latest move by the National salaries, income and wages commission on the implementation of the new minimum wage as a betrayal of trust.
Also in his speech, the TUC also expressed worries over the spate of inter/Intra- Communal, ethnic, Sectarian, political and Regional Violence which has charged the political atmosphere months after the general election and urged the Federal Government to tackle them within the shortest possible time
The TUC chairman also commended the state governor for lifting the ban on the promotion of civil servants and urged the governor to prevail and direct the civil service commission to begin the immediate promotion of all qualified staff.
He also thanked the Governor for building the trade union secretariat which he described as one of the major challenges of the union since a humongous amount is paid as annual rent at its present location.
In its presentation, the Rivers state government said it has begun the payments of pension allowances to the first batch of pensioners captured in the last Biometric exercise.
The Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, Represented by the Head of Service Rufus Godwin at the Triennial State Delegate conference of Trade Union Congress in Port Harcourt said the government is seeking the cooperation of labour unions and leaders to achieve a prosperous state.
He said the government is working tirelessly to address all pending pension and pensioner’s issues in the state.
The Head of Service Rufus Godwin also decried the poor attitude of civil servants to work and urged them to shun all forms of administrative frauds.
He said most civil servants are not on their desks by 9 AM and urged them to improve on their productivity even as the state awaits all the final and finishing touches that the Minimum wage will go through before workers will begin to enjoy the new increase.
Professor Joesph Kinanee presented a paper on the theme of the event, How To Manage Stress.