The State Chairman of the Joint Public Negotiating Council, Rivers State under the Nigerian Labour Congress, Comrade Emechita Chukwu, says, the Rivers State government should pay the arrears owed them as the Zenith Bank has handed over the payment of salaries in Rivers State.
Comrade Emechita made the demand during migration process between the Ministry of Finance and Zenith Bank last week at the conference Hall of ministry of Finance secretariat complex, Port Harcourt.
The labour leader in an interview with journalists stated that, even if there were not in the party of the migration exercise, it is imperative that the Rivers State government pay the arrears owed them at the time Zenith Bank was handling payments in Rivers State.
He however said the government will use the opportunity to settle all the arrears owed them. ‘We are only saying that they should pay us what is due to us,” the labour leader said.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Finance Rivers State has attributed the invasion of private sector into all the facets of the state government to weak institutions and lack of capacity, saying, the problem of weak institution led to the payment of salaries by Zenith Bank but maintained that where there is no enough capacity there is nothing wrong to involve them.
He said the government of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi is concerned about how the state government can pay its workers and eliminate the ghost workers syndrome which has generated into ghost salary syndrome.
The commissioner further stated that workers in Rivers State will begin to have their pay-slips during payment of salaries and the issue of over-payment and under payment will be the thing of the past.
Dr. Peterside said right now, the state government is capable of paying its worker especially now that the Zenith bank have handed over the payment of salaries to the state, because they are well trained to do so but salaries will still be paid through the bank.
On the issue of arrears owed labour, the commissioner debunked such insinuations, while stating that the payment of minimum wage has commenced since last year September, 2011 and they have agreed to spread the payment over the next six months.
Earlier, Mr. Patrick Okewu, representative pf Zenith Bank had admitted that payment of salary was not their core area, hence they decided to hand over to state government but promised to assist the ministry of finance to achieve its objective.
Also speaking, the Accountant General, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Ngozi Abu, stated that the process of payroll by the ministry is a welcome development and long overdue.
To move the state forward, it is expected that both labour and the ministry of finance should take the correct step to iron out the differences. ###
Pius Dukor
