The Bayelsa government has promised to pay wage awards to all local government employees, starting from August, to cushion the hardships caused by the petrol subsidy removal.

Deputy Governor Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo gave the assurance on Monday at a meeting with local government stakeholders, including the eight caretaker committee chairmen, labour leaders and principal officers of the LGAs at Government House, Yenagoa.

He announced that the government, in collaboration with the LGAs, would also ensure the payment of gratuities to the councils’ retirees.

He informed that the Bayelsa government had approved 30 per cent payment of the gratuities across the board for retirees, starting from August.

On the wage awards, the deputy governor said council workers on grade levels one to six would now earn N20,000 as additional salary, grade levels seven to 10, N30,000, while those on grade levels 12 to 14 will now have N40,000 added to their salaries.

He added that government also approved N50,000 as wage awards to council employees on grade level 15 to 17, while heads of local governments will earn N100,000 as additional salary.

“While waiting for the reliefs from the federal government, we are proposing a wage award for local government employees. The governor has given anticipatory approval but I believe he will give the final approval this week. And we will start implementing the approval,” stated the deputy governor. “That is why I have always encouraged local government workers to be patient with us. We are aware of your sufferings and the state government will not hesitate to intervene.”

He explained the government made some gratuities proposal, “which we want the local governments to support us” and the proposal is to pay 30 per cent across the board “to all those who have retired from wherever the payment stopped to 2022 and one month in 2023.”

Mr Ewhrudjakpo added, “Our plan is for every local government retiree to get something at the end of this month (August). The Governor has already approved this. We are only going to raise a committee to supervise the payment because we still have some grey areas to address.”

Mr Ewhrudjakpo, who commended local government workers and retirees for their understanding and patience, assured that the Prosperity Administration would continue to take steps to address issues concerning their welfare.

On the ongoing data capturing exercise for the computerisation of staff on the Oracle Payroll System, the deputy governor appealed to the workers’ union at the local government level to be a little bit patient with government to test run the software and make necessary corrections before full take-off.

He also assured that approval would be given for the conduct of the 2023 senior staff promotion exercise, due in 2023.

(NAN)