By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

ENUGU-FACTIONAL Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Enugu State, Chief Okey Ogbonna, weekend faulted claims by the state government that it had implemented the N18,000 New Minimum Wage Act, saying that the new workers’ emoluments released by the government was not only ‘’spurious but deceitful.’’

Ogbonna described the court action against the striking civil servants by the government over the implementation of the N18,000 new minimum wage, as ill-advised and urged Governor Sullivan Chime to withdraw the suit.

Ogbonna in a statement said the civil servants were also right to have embarked on industrial action as the government reneged on its earlier promise to implement the New Minimum Wage Act as passed by the National Assembly.

He said: “The workers’ emoluments as graduated according to rank and steps, and the chart guiding its implementation as government claims, remains spurious and deceitful. There is an indefinite strike declared by the workers in Enugu state on September 7, 2011. If there was compliance with the Minimum Wage Act, I do not think the workers would have embarked on strike.”

‘I am aware that the government said it had paid additional N10,000 to workers within levels one to six and N5,000 to workers between levels seven and 16. This I feel does not give a correct interpretation of the Minimum Wage Act. ‘Anyway, there is no serious steps being taken by the government; the latest is that as usual, the governor has taken labour to court – so we shall wait for the court to decide.”

“Meanwhile, banks and parastatals in Enugu state have joined the strike thereby grounding all government, corporate and individual businesses to a halt. What actually happened is that the National Assembly has already taken a position on the matter; having passed the bill into Law.

According to Senator Ayogu Eze, (former Chairman of Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs) the governors have no choice other than to abide by the new Minimum Wage Act, and this is my own position that the Enugu State Government should pay the new wages because the court action is wrong. If the government fails to take a decisive action I am afraid if the strike will not linger beyond imagination.”