24th March, 2011
Following the inability of the Lagos State Government to pay them the new increment in salary, workers of the Lagos Television, Radio Lagos and Eko FM have gone spiritual as they met on Wednesday to cry out to God for divine intervention.
The workers met early in the morning to pray as efforts to make the state government pay the minimum wage had not yielded result.
Head of Service, Mr. Adesegun Ogunlewe did not help matters when he told the staff that as parastatals, they were not included in the minimum wage Governor Babatunde Fashola promised civil servants in the state which is now being implemented.
Fashola had promised that all public servants, to which Lagos Television, Radio Lagos and Eko FM belonged, would enjoy the new salary package but to the consternation of the journalists working in the stations, they were not paid the new wage package.
However, the prayer was so intense that the workers called on God to bind every force making the government not to implement the new salary increase for the journalists, even while other parastatals like them were already enjoying the package.
At the gathering, the staff, under the aegis of Radio and Television Theatre Workers Union, RATAWU said that they might not benefit from the state’s minimum wage due to insufficient internally generated fund and paltry subvention from the government.
It was gathered that the three organisations under RATAWU would require about N24 million to be able to pay its workers. Chairman of RATAWU for LTV, Mr. Segun Onafowokan, said the organisation would need about N27 million to be able to pay the minimum wage, adding that “at present, LTV receives N3 million as subvention from the government but pays N16 million as salary.
“With the new salary, LTV will need about N12 million as subvention from government.†He said it became necessary for the workers to go spiritual because the HOS had appealed to the union not to stage a protest to the governor’s office.
Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Radio Lagos Chapel, Mrs. Titi Adeaga said that the organisation would need about N12 million to be able to pay the new minimum wage, which she put at N23 million.
According to her, the workers were not happy with the discussion they had with the government over the implementation of the wages.
which the HOS promised might not be implemented until June this year.
“Our members are not happy with the date. It is too far but we don’t want to disrupt government activities. That is why we have organised prayer. There is nothing God cannot do. We are praying to God so that we can benefit like other civil servants,†she said.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga
