By Okey Alozie
As Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State swung into action to make Imo workers happy by implementing the new minimum wage, a lot of discrepancies so far have been noticed which affected negatively the Senior staff mostly, civil servants in level 8 to 17 as their increments were not fully reflected in the consequential adjustment.
The state civil servants from level one to seven as we gathered got more percentage of the increment than those from level 8 to 17. The junior workers in Imo Civil service got their pay slip for the month of January 2025 and discovered they got above N20,000 in their salary.
The workers from level one who were formerly receiving upto N30,000 as take home salary, this time , got above N60,000. Those in level 2 and 3 are getting upto N70,000, level 4,5,6,7 are now getting upto N75,000 and N80,000 while those from level 8 upto 17 did not get upto 20,000 as additional money to their individual salary.
One of the senior staff who spoke to our roving reporter at state secretariat Owerri on Monday under strict anonymity, lambasted the government for favouring the Junior workers with the minimum wage, adding that the salaries of those from level 8 to 17 is nothing to write home about “Our own increment could not reflect fully in the consequential adjustment. Those from 1 to 7 got money more than senior workers (level 8-17)”
“To us, this is unacceptable and we reject it in totality” aggrieved senior workers declared”.
One of the level 14 staff who got N14,000 in the new increment raised eyesbrow on the issue. The aggrieved worker begged the labour leaders to come to their rescue and call the Governor to order.
Concerned Imolites are now demanding that the pay officers should as a matter of urgencies show publicly the salary scale of workers and the templates for the payment.
