Labour ready for war with govs over Minimum wage

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Organized Labour has said it is ready to go to war with any governor that fails to implement the N30,000 minimum wage and the consequential adjustment that follows for workers in their states.

President Muhammadu Buhari signed the new minimum wage Act into law on April 18, 2019.

Six months after Buhari signed the Act into law, the Federal Government and organised labour, agreed to 23.2 per cent increase for workers on level seven and 20 per cent for workers on level eight, while it agreed on 19 per cent increase for workers on level nine.


Also, both the government and organised labour reached an agreement on 16 per cent salary increase for workers on levels 10 to 14 and 14 per cent increase for workers on levels 15 to 17.

With labour reaching agreement with government at the national level, the battle shifted to the states.

Only five states-Kaduna, Kebbi, Lagos, Adamawa and Jigawa-have commenced implementation and payment of the new wage after it was signed into law in April.

Other states are yet to show full commitment, forcing labour to issue a December 31 deadline for full implementation of the new minimum wage, including the consequential adjustments by the remaining states.

The deadline will expire on Tuesday.

The Secretary-General of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Musa-Lawal Ozigi, said any governor that fails to implement or show commitment before the Tuesday deadline would be deemed to have declared war against labour.

Ozigi, in an interview in Abuja, said organised labour would decide on how to handle recalcitrant state governors who fail to implement the new wage at the end of the December 31 deadline.