By Ade Adedeji, Ilorin.
The Kwara State Government has allayed the fears of its workers that a scheduled staff audit and verification exercise is not meant to be a pre-condition for payment of minimum wage.
Workers have been rumored to nurse the feeling that government planned audit and verification of workers was meant to dodge paying the demanded payment of N30,000 minimum
The workers through the Nigeria Labour Congress had last week given government a 14-Day strike notice over non-payment of the minimum wage.
Commissioner for Comunication, Harriet Afolabi-Oshatimehin who explained government's position in Ilorin said; “To be sure, negotiations for the minimum wage continues on Thursday. The minimum wage is a law the state government will obey.
"The challenge however has been how the Local governments can afford it. At the moment, all the Local Governments combined earn an average of N2.6bn monthly, including the 10 percent of their share of the IGR. Remarkably, the monthly wage bill of these Local Governments stands at about N2.5bn.
"These expenses, it must be stated, are based on the extant N18,000 minimum wage.
“When the new minimum wage is considered, including the consequential adjustments, the wage bill will shoot up to around N3bn. Clearly, the earnings of the local governments cannot afford such at this time.
"The government is committed to paying the minimum wage but it is pleading with the labour to accept a more reasonable scale which takes the total wage bill to less than N3bn.
The Commissioner therefore pleaded with workers for what she termed "reasonable and practical steps to avoid a situation which would lead to the Local Governments borrowing to pay salaries as was the case before this administration".
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