By Joseph Joy, Chiekezie Emmanuel, Onyekachi Agu and Ani Ruth

Enugu – In November, the Enugu State Government began the implementation of the ₦80, 000 new minimum wage as approved by the Governor, Barr Dr Peter Ndubisi Mbah in October.

The Governor had in October approved N80,000 minimum wage for the state’s work force, including local government workers, effective October 2024.

Although the Governor lived up to his promise by starting the payment of the new minimum wage to the state workers, ESUT Monitor can authoritatively report that the staff of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, owned by the state government, are not part of those who are currently being paid the new minimum wage.

Prior to the Christmas and New Year break on Friday December 20, various unions in ESUT had threatened to embark on industrial action to press home their demand for inclusion and other outstanding benefits.

This paper understands that while the threat to down tools, perhaps when the university resumes on Monday, January 6, 2025 has not been waved, the staff are agitated over their exclusion from the new minimum wage payment.

Investigation shows that ESUT Staff were also excluded from the wage award of N25,000 the Governor approved for workers from December 2023 till October 2024 when the new minimum wage of N80,000 was approved and consequently reflected in the November salary

Speaking in an exclusive interview with our reporters, ESUT’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof Aloysius-Michaels Okolie acknowledged that indeed the staff of the university are not yet paid but offered explanations.

He noted that situation is not perculiar to ESUT but affects all Enugu State owned tertiary institutions who are receiving subventions from the government. He explained further that the ESUT management, likewise other institutions’ Managements are waiting for the state government to issue them a White Paper on the Consequential Adjustment relating to the implementation of the new minimum wage.

“The Council discussed this in our last meeting before we went on break. We’re waiting for the document that reflects the consequential adjustment. Most of them at the ministry aren’t very concerned about consequential adjustments. When you increase the minimum wage, there’s a White Paper that guides the consequential adjustment. We haven’t seen that from the governor.

“You don’t become arbitrary when you increase the minimum wage. It’s not enough to say they’ve increased it, but once the government issues us a White Paper stating the increment, procedure of consequential adjustment, reflecting on what they’ll bring, ESUT will equally join. Assuming they bring 33% from the local government, the implication is that ESUT has been bringing 57% and augmenting it.

“If you move people below ₦80, 000 to ₦80, 000 you should have consequential adjustments. The picture at the ministries isn’t clear, though we discussed it at the Council. How can we get them to bring the White Paper that will guide us to do the needful?

“This issue does not affect only ESUT but also no state university in Enugu State has started implementing it because of the challenges I explained. The heads of other tertiary institutions face the same challenges. We want to pay, but the government must bring consequential adjustments with matching upgrades so we can start paying,” the VC explained.