Uduaghan approves weigh-in allowance for media workers

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State has approved the payment of weigh-in allowance to staff of parastatals in the Ministry of Information, including the Delta Broadcasting Service (DBS) and The Pointer newspaper.
The approval effectively meets the key demand of the three unions in the Ministry of Information, which had embarked on strike to press for the payment of the allowance.
Earlier on Monday, December 22, 2014, Commissioner for Information, Chike Ogeah, alongside the Head of Service, Patrick Origho, had met the leaders of the three unions, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Radio, Television and Theatre Workers’ Union (RATTAWU) and the National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Products Workers (NUPPPROW), where they were assured of the governor’s readiness to approve the payment of the allowance.
Uduaghan, who was out of the state when the unions began their industrial action on December 18, approved the payment of the allowance on returning to Asaba, the state capital. In effect, Delta State has become the first state to approve the payment of the weigh-in allowance. Until now, only workers at the federal level had been earning the allowance.
Reacting to the governor’s approval for the payment of the allowance, Ogeah said the unions are expected to immediately call off the strike in line with the agreement reached at the Monday meeting.
Ogeah expressed the government’s appreciation for the maturity in the meeting and urged the unions to redouble their efforts to increase productivity. He said the upgrading of the two arms of the DBS with world-class broadcast equipment in readiness for the digitisation deadline would be completed within two weeks and he called on the workers to brace up for the new challenges.