Labour: States that don’t pay new minimum wage will be shut down

Mr. Christopher Arapasopo, Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Osun State chapter, announced that joint labour unions have agreed to enforce the new N70,000 minimum wage in all states, warning that any state failing to comply will face shutdown.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Osogbo, Arapasopo explained that the unions accepted the new minimum wage to prevent an increase in fuel pump prices.

He highlighted that during a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, members unanimously decided to enforce the minimum wage across all states, with non-compliance resulting in shutdowns.

“The governors cannot claim ignorance of this agreement. In fact, they were the ones pushing for N70,000 as the minimum wage,” Arapasopo stated. “We, as labour, initially suggested N250,000, but it was negotiated down to N62,000 before settling on N70,000, which we accepted as a significant compromise.”

He emphasized the unions’ firm stance: “Any government or governor that fails to pay will see their state shut down. This is non-negotiable. We are not negotiating that.”

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Arapasopo further explained that during their recent NEC meeting, all state representatives adopted the agreed amount based on factual considerations.

He noted, “The president said if we insisted on our demand of N250,000, he would have to increase the fuel price. But as responsible citizens, we believe our demand should benefit the entire nation, not just a specific sector.” “As workers, we should be able to think about other Nigerians and not ourselves alone.

“So, we made the sacrifice to accept the N70,000 to avoid the price of fuel going up,” he said

Arapasopo said if the union had insisted on the N250,000 minimum wage,  Nigerians and workers would suffer the increment in fuel pump price and inflation would increase.

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He said the N70,000 accepted by labour was still fair as it would be the least salary paid to workers in the lowest cadre.

Arapasopo added that consequential adjustments and benefits attached to the levels would even jack up the wage when it was implemented.

He said the Osun chapter of the union would meet with the state government to discuss some allowances for workers, “but the minimum wage stands non-negotiable.”