Don’t provoke us on minimum wage, NLC warns govs

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday warned state governors against any delay in the payment of the N30,000 new minimum wage, saying doing so would force workers to embark on an industrial action.

The Anambra State Chairman of the NLC,  Jerry Nnubia, stated this during the quadrennial delegate conference of the congress in the state.

He advised governors to cut the cost of governance by reducing some of their excesses to enable them to implement the new minimum wage.

Nnubia counselled the governors not to do anything capable of causing unrest among Nigerian workers, adding that the full implementation of the N30,000 monthly minimum wage would ensure stability in the polity.

He said, “The minimum wage bill is a product of negotiation and with President Muhammadu Buhari signing it into law. We are looking out for a circular to be released and each state is bound to implement it. The state governments have no option but to implement it because they were part and parcel of all the negotiations.

“For us in Anambra State, we have the firm belief that our governor will implement it fully. He has promised us and I am sure we are not going to have challenges in that regard.

“We commend the National Assembly for the speedy passage of the New National Minimum Wage (2019) Amendment Bill and also President Muhammadu Buhari for assenting to it on April 18, 2019.

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“We, therefore, wish to use this platform to call on the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, to immediately release the implementation table to enable our hard-working and labour-friendly governor, Chief Willie Obiano, who has already firmly promised to be the first governor to pay the new minimum wage to the hard-working workers of Anambra State, to implement the new minimum wage.”

Obiano had on Wednesday assured the workers that he would be among the first governors to pay the new wage.

He said the state would source N2bn monthly to enable it to pay the wage, adding that workers’ monthly bill in state before the new development was N4bn.