I know that ‘a worker deserves his wages’ and admit that ‘we’ve failed the workers’- Ortom

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, Monday admitted that his government had not lived up to its responsibility of meeting the wage entitlements of workers in the state.

“A worker deserves his wages, but the Benue government has not been able to fulfill that obligation. We have failed the workers in this regard”, Ortom said in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, following a meeting with national leaders of organised labour.

The governor however revealed that the reasons responsible for the failure of the state government to pay salaries constituted a major challenge far beyond the government’s present capacity.

On effort to resolve the ongoing industrial action by workers in the state, Ortom said, “Government is worried by its inability to pay workers and has constituted a Joint Technical Committee, comprising civil servants and government officials, to look into the issues surrounding the inability to pay salaries.

Read also: Three northern govs hold separate closed-door meetings with Buhari

“The committee will also work toward bringing down Benue’s high wage bill of N7.8 billion”.

National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Ayuba Wabba, who also spoke to journalists after the meeting, said that the state government had made offers aimed at addressing the strike action embarked upon by workers in the state.

He advised the government to plug loopholes that had pushed up the state’s wage bill which he acknowledgedwas “too high”.

Both Wabba and Ortom did not disclose any specific offers made by the government.

 

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