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Labour Threatens Nationwide Action If States Breach Minimum Wage Agreement

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Organized Labour in the country has drawn the battle line with state governors over the new minimum wage signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in April, with the former threatening to shut down the nation should the latter fail to act accordingly.

Organized Labour also said it would not accept any breach of the consequential adjustment agreement, which details how the minimum wage of N30,000 will be implemented across various salary scales.


The reaction of labour was elicited by Monday’s declaration of Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum, NGF that the Federal Government cannot dictate to governors on issues relating to payment of the new minimum wage.

 

The Chairman of the Nigerian Governors' Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi who addressed State House Correspondents had said
“I am sure you know the FEC does not determine what happens in the states, the states have their own state executive councils and that is the highest decision-making body at the state level. The forum (NGF) as the representative body of the states, followed what happened in the negotiations that transpired. As far as we are concerned, the best that the forum can do is stick to what has been agreed with states.

 

“States were part of the tripartite negotiation and agreed to N30,000 minimum wage. But states also know there will be consequential adjustments. That would be determined by what happened on a state-by-state basis because there are different numbers of workers at the state level, there are different issues at the state level.

 

“Every state has its own trade unions, with a negotiating committee and they would undertake this discussion with their state government. That is simply what we have said.’’

 

Reacting to Fayemi's statement, leader of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, Simon Anchaver, said the new minimum wage is a law that had been signed by the President, and that the revenue of state governments would determine the consequential adjustment on the new minimum wage it would accept.

 

He also said labour will insist governors open the books of their states to the public to ascertain if they could pay not just the new minimum wage but also the consequential adjustment. He said the revenue of a state would be the main factor on the rate of consequential adjustment it agrees with such a state.

 

“Since it is a law, the state governments must pay. First and foremost, they should declare how much they are collecting from their respective state revenue, then we will know if it is commensurable to pay minimum wage. Once they (state governments) disclose their revenue, they can negotiate and that should be supervised by the national officers so that we can avoid situations where some labour leaders will be in the hands of the state government,” he added.

 

According to him, a meeting of National Joint Council 1,2,3 would hold on November 5 and “we will address the joint councils at the various states; we will give them templates that will guide them on the implementation. We are ready for shut down if any (part) of the agreement is breached,” he warned.

 

Everybody will negotiate differently based on the state (of the) economy but what is sacrosanct is the minimum wage of N30,000 and how that will be adjusted across the board is the function of collective bargaining between the workforce and government,” he said.

 

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