Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has approved the payment of N85,000.00 as the new minimum wage for civil servants in the employ of Rivers State Government.
The agreement was reached during a closed door meeting at Government House, Port Harcourt, on Friday.
The meeting presided over by the governor was attended by representatives of organised labour under the auspices of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council in the State .
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Head of Rivers State Civil Service, Dr George Nwaeke, who spoke on behalf of the government, affirmed that Governor Fubara had approved the new minimum wage of N85,000.00, adding that payment would begin in November, 2024.
Dr George said: “He (Gov Fubara) has pronounced a figure that is higher than the National Minimum Wage. He pronounced a sum of N85,000.00, which is higher than the minimum wage that was prescribed nationally.
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“So, as the Head of Service and a major stakeholder in the labour family, I am very happy to say that the Rivers Civil Servants have never had it this good since the inception of this State.
“The labour union leaders and all the other major stakeholders were happy with this development,” he added.
Responding to possible payment of arrears, Dr Nwaeke said it is yet to be determined because a technical committee had been set up to critically work out a tenable payment chart, which will cater to issues of arrears.
He clarified, “Issues of arrears will be worked out by the committee that I am going to be Deputy to the SSG. We are already going to work on it in a technical committee that will now get the nitty gritty of the payment and inform the press later.”
On his part, the Rivers State Chairman of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, Comrade Emecheta Chuku, said that was their first meeting with Governor Fubara to discuss the issue of the new minimum wage as approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
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