ByJohnbosco Agbakwuru
Calabar— Cross River State Government has denied the allegation that there was plan for a downward review of the N18,000 minimum wage agreed upon with labour, saying those spreading the rumour were trying to be mischievous.

Some members of the state executive of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, had, after a meeting with Mr. Efiok Cobham, deputy governor, alleged that the government had planned to slash the agreed minimum wage of N18,000 to N10,000.

Reacting to the allegation in Calabar, Governor Liyel Imoke, who spoke through his Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Patrick Ugbe, told our correspondent that there was no iota of truth in the allegation.

He said government has shown much commitment in the welfare of workers and had upon resumption of office in 2007, increased workers salary from N6,500, being paid by the previous administration, to N8,000 and also started five per cent yearly increment of salaries across board.

The governor noted that the monthly net allocation of the state from the federation account was about N2.75 billion after all statutory deductions at source. He said about N2.2 billion was being used for the payment of workers salaries, pension and gratuity.

This development, he said, had given great concern to the government as little or nothing was being left for capital projects after the payment of salaries, pensions and gratuity. But that government had never planned to cut down the salaries of the state workforce.

He also explained that while the salaries of officers between grade levels one to seven were recently increased by 100 per cent, those between grade levels eight and above were increased by about 140 per cent, a situation that has made it impossible for the state, and local governments in particular, to meet the payment of wage bill.

He said: “It will, therefore, be unthinkable for anyone to imagine that the state government is contemplating the slashing of the new wage, particularly at this time when government and labour are enjoying a very cordial relationship.

“We will like to, however, state that in the course of implementation, government has identified some grey areas which need to be ironed out and we already in dialogue with labour.”

Although Ugbe said the monthly Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of the state had risen to about N700 million, he noted that there was need to focus more on the development of the larger society instead of just 22,000 work force which makes up only about two per cent of the population.