The government of Enugu State has explained that the reason why some civil servants, including primary school teachers were yet to be paid the new minimum wage was that it was working to fully capture every worker in their payroll.
This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Finance, Mrs Adaona Uyawune during the press briefing on the 2021 Appropriation Law of Enugu State.
According to Uyawune, departments and agencies of the state relied on subventions to pay their workers, who were basically ad hoc staff.
The state government had begun the payment of the new minimum wage in February 2020, though some workers in departments and agencies of the state government, including primary school teachers, have yet to start enjoying such benefit.
Reacting to the development, the commissioner stressed that the subventions paid to the respective agencies and departments were currently undergoing adjustments to suit their workers.
“Most of their workers are ad hoc and they are subvented. We are paying minimum wage to all state workers. The issue of primary school teachers; they are under the local government. They are not state workers,” Uyawune said.
She added that a committee was working to look into adjustments on subventions that would be enough for each agency to pay their workers.