New minimum wage: NLC, TUC react to Governors' position on workers' salary, issue threat

NLC, TUC

The Trade Union Congress, TUC, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, have vowed to resist the position of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, that States will pay the new minimum wage according to their capacities.

DAILY POST reported that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), on Monday said that the consequential increments in the implementation of the N30,000 Minimum Wage Law would depend on the capacity of each state government.

They threatened that any governor not ready to pay should be ready for a showdown.

The labour leaders who spoke in separate interviews with the Nation insisted that states should pay as expected.

Secretary-General to the TUC, Musa-lawal Ozigi, said, “The governors are jokers. You know why? Because they were part of the minimum wage committee, they cannot say they don’t know what happened.

“The state governments are only playing games. They were represented in the minimum wage committee. They cannot come round to deny their responsibility. They are simply courting labour anger and we are ready for them.

“The statement is only to test Labour’s resolve to ensure that the dividend of minimum wage gets to everybody and we are ready for them.

“All the governors in Nigeria receive the same salaries. Even the states that cannot produce anything, they receive the same salaries with states that can produce something. So, they cannot also deny their workers what they should get.

“We have finished battling with the Federal Government and the consequential increase has been signed. It is time to go to the states to ensure that justice is done to everybody.

“Once the template we signed with the Federal government is passed to the states, we will then know which state said it cannot implement or pay. The template is not for negotiations but for implementation.

“We are not asking the federal government to help us in telling states what to do with the template. Labour will do its own job.

The General-Secretary of the NLC, Emmanuel Ugbaoja, added, “It will be a function of collective bargaining and not a function of directive from a governor. The leadership of labour in the various states will negotiate with the government in those states.

“We are done with that of federal government the negotiation moves to the state level. That’s what the situation is.”