Bayelsa to initiate payment of wage awards, gratuities to LG workers, retirees

Bayelsa Government has assured that it would kickstart the payment of wage awards to all local government employees, with effect from August, to cushion the excruciating effects of fuel subsidy removal on the workers. The state Deputy Governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, gave the assurance on Monday at a meeting with Local Government Stakeholders, including the Eight Caretaker Committee Chairmen, labour leaders and principal officers of the Local Government Areas (LGAs) at Government House, Yenagoa. He announced that the state government, in collaboration with the local government councils, would also ensure the payment of gratuities to councils’ retirees who were yet to benefit. He informed that government had approved 30% payment of the gratuities across board for the retirees, which would also take effect from August. On the wage awards, the deputy Governor said council workers on grade levels one to six will now earn N20,000 as additional salary, grade levels seven to 10, N30,000, while those on grade levels 12 to 14 will now have N40,000 added to their salaries. He added that government had also approved N50,000 as wage awards to council employees on grade level 15 to 17, while Heads of Local Governments will earn N100,000 as additional salary. He said: “While waiting for the reliefs from the Federal Government, we are proposing a wage award for local government employees. “The Governor has given anticipatory approval but I believe he will give the final approval this week. And we will start implementing the approval. “That is why I have always encouraged local government workers to be patient with us. We are aware of your sufferings and the state government will not hesitate to intervene. “On gratuities, we have also made some proposal, which we want the local governments to support us. The proposal is that, we should pay 30 per cent across board to all those who have retired from wherever the payment stopped to 2022 and one month in 2023. “Our plan is for every local government retiree to get something at the end of this month (August). The Governor has already approved this. We are only going to raise a committee to supervise the payment because we still have some grey areas to address,” he said. Ewhrudjakpo, who commended local government workers and retirees for their understanding and patience, assured that the Prosperity Administration would continue to take steps to address issues concerning their welfare. On the ongoing data capturing exercise for the computerization of staff on the Oracle Payroll System, the deputy governor appealed to the workers’ union at the local government level to be a little bit patient with government to test run the software and make necessary corrections before full take-off. Responding to questions raised by some of the stakeholders, the Bayelsa Number Two Man assured that approval would be given for the conduct of the 2023 senior staff promotion exercise, due in 2023, to bring them at par with their state counterparts.