Bayelsa LG Councils Set to Pay New Minimum Wage, Salary Arrears

Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

Workers under the umbrella of the local government system in Bayelsa State would soon heave a sigh of relief as the eight council areas in the state have begun modalities to pay the new minimum wage and salary arrears owed council staff.

The workers, including primary school teachers, non-academic staff and health personnel, would also be paid their salary arrears from 2016 on monthly instalments with effect from this month.

These were part of the resolutions taken at the end of an enlarged stakeholders’ meeting involving chairmen and principal officers of local government council areas, labour union leaders, and some top government officials, which was presided over by the state Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, at the Government House in Yenagoa at the weekend.

It was also resolved at the meeting which lasted for about three hours that N5 million should be set aside from the monthly statutory allocation of each local government area for the payment of the salary arrears.

Declaring the meeting open, Ewhrudjakpo restated the present administration’s determination to reposition the state local government system for effective service delivery at the grassroots level.

In the meeting, it was equally noted that the stakeholders also resolved that the 2022 senior and junior staff promotions should be conducted without any further delay.

Therefore, the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) and the various Junior Staff Management Committees (JSMCs) were directed to immediately commence the 2022 staff promotion exercise for all workers that are due for promotion.

Furthermore, it was agreed in principle that the full computerisation of the councils’ payrolls should begin as a step in the right direction to sanitise the system and checkmate sharp practices within the system.

On the implementation of the new minimum wage for councils, it was resolved that the report from the committee on the new salary should be thoroughly looked into with a view to working out the necessary modalities for commencement of implementation as soon as possible.

Presenting the report of the Committee on Local Governments Implementation of Minimum Wage Projection, the Technical Adviser to the Governor on Treasury and Accounts, Mr. Timipre Seipulu, disclosed that the aggregate monthly wage bill of the council areas would rise to about N1.2 billion once the new wage is implemented.

He said the figure represented more than 76 percent of the average federal allocations that came into the coffers of the eight council areas in the state for the first three months of this year (January to March 2022).

Addressing journalists at the end of the meeting on behalf of the council chairmen, the Chairman of Ekeremor LGA, Dr. Perekeme Bertola, assured participants that the eight councils would take every necessary step to ensure the full implementation of the resolutions.

According to Bertola, under the able leadership and supervision of the deputy governor, council chairmen will work hard to address some of the challenges affecting workers at the third tier level of government before they bow out in August this year.

He said: “We resolved that from next week, the local government councils should commence the promotion exercise for 2022 by the Local Government Service Commission for the senior staff, and for the junior staff, the various Junior Staff Management Committees will be responsible for their promotions.

“We also resolved that a minimum of N5 million will be set aside every month to clear the salary arrears depending on what is available to each local government area. This means in a case where the resources are higher, the LGAs can increase their threshold in order to clear arrears.

“For the N30, 000 minimum wage, that will be a consequential increment. A committee has been set up in that regards to consider a 20 percent increase.

“With regards to the computerisation of the payrolls, a vote was taken by the principal members of the eight local government areas of the state, and majority of them voted in favour of it (payroll computerisation).”

Also speaking, the state Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Julius Laye, applauded the state government for midwifing the entire process towards making the local government workers enjoy the benefits due them according to law.

He promised that Labour unions would cooperate with other relevant agencies to ensure a successful implementation of the resolutions reached at the meeting.

In his remarks, the Chairman, Bayalsa State Wing of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Richman Otobo, expressed delight at the resolution to computerise the payrolls for local government workers, especially primary teachers, noting that it would help in checking issue of irregularities in the payroll system.