Abia denies not implementing minimum wage

Abia State Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, has denied that the state was yet to start implementation of the minimum wage, maintaining that the report that Abia State was one of the states yet to be paying the N30,000 minimum wage as untrue.

“Abia State Government, led by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, PhD, commenced implementation of the new minimum wage in January 2020 with the least paid worker in the state workforce earning above the minimum wage of N30,000.

“Indeed, the state is the first in the Southeast region to have commenced payment of the new minimum wage to workers. We are, therefore, lost as to how the national leadership of NLC is not aware of this fact, which is verifiable and available within the media space, including previous publications by The Guardian, and Abia civil servants who are their members.”

Kalu said the least expected from the Deputy General Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress, Bello Ismail, before compiling and publishing from the cited document on the status of the state with regard to the payment of the new minimum wage was to have called or cross checked with the local chapter of NLC or any state worker to verify the status.