From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has approved additional N200 million for the payment of pensioners’ gratuity for the month of May.
The governor also approved the financial implementation of 2021 promotion exercise for workers and directed the relevant government officials to negotiate with labour to come up with feasible recommendations as soon as possible.
Governor Diri while disclosing this on Sunday at the Workers Day celebration in response to demands of labour leadership in the state added that his administration has prioritised workers welfare to enhance productivity.
Diri who assured retirees that N400 million would be made available this month to accommodate a sizeable number of pensioners in view of the backlog of arrears expressed gratitude to workers for their support and the existing harmonious industrial relationship with his administration.
The governor also approved a number of the workers requests, which include implementation of the annual step increment as well as the release of funds for conduct of the 2022 promotion exercise for both the state and local government levels.
Diri directed the Commissioner for Education to come up with recommendations for the monthly running cost of government-owned technical colleges for immediate implementation and also gave a directive to relevant officials in the Ministry of Health to ensure the payment of call-duty allowance to specialist nurses as approved in 2014 in tandem with extant rules.
According to him, his administration is establishing technical colleges across the eight local government areas of the state to train people to become employers of labour rather than becoming job seekers.
In a joint address by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), presented by the state NLC chairman, Mr John Ndiomu, labour commended the Diri administration’s workers-friendly posture.
The NLC and TUC applauded the governor for prompt payment of salaries and gratuities, infrastructure development and numerous other projects that were on-going across the state.
Ndiomu equally commended the state government for releasing N117 million monthly to support the payment of primary school teachers in local government councils.
According to him, complete implementation of the Oracle payment system at the state level and the building of a befitting edifice for the state’s media organisations were some of the achievements that have endeared Diri to workers in the state.
This year May Day celebration had has one of the programmes March Past competition among all the unions.
The state chapter of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria clinched the first prize of N2million while the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives got the second prize of N1.5million and the third prize of N1 million went to the state branch of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners.