Minimum wage: TUC says implementation not negotiable

Trade Union Congress (TUC) said that the implementation of new minimum wage by all state governors is not negotiable.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin shortly after the inauguration of the new state executive of the TUC, both the TUC National Committee chairman on the resolution of Kwara state crisis and Kwara state TUC Chairman, Comrade Martin Egbanubi and Akinsola Akinwumi, respectively, said that the national minimum wage, as legislated in 2019 should be implemented across board at the State, Local and Federal Government levels.

Egbanubi, who doubles as the General Secretary, Nigerian Union of Allied Professionals affiliate of the TUC said that “No state governor should hide under the fact that there is no money and refuse to implement the minimum wage.

“Any state governor that refuses to implement is violating the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. No governor should hide under any guise either financial or other not to implement the new minimum wage.”

Also speaking, Comrade Akinwumi said that “our stand is for the minimum wage to be paid to all Nigerian workers because it is a law. It is must be adhered to. It is not an observation nor is it a suggestion.

“Narrowing it down to Kwara state, I am just coming on board I have not heard from the governor directly, but I am giving them an olive branch now that whatever they had done to have halted the payment of the minimum wage, we can come back to a round table discussion. Kwara state workers at large are entitled to benefit from the law that has been passed nationally.

“So, I am extending my invitation to whoever is handling the issue at the other side to please think twice on the steps they have taken before my emergence. The labour unions in the state are totally opposed to any attempt not to pay the minimum wage.

“I am aware of what is going in the state as regards the case of minimum wage and I want to maintain that we can bring it off from wherever they have put it, bring it back to a discussion table and let us have reasoning together so that going forward workers in the state will benefit from what is called a right. We are not going to say an outright no to discussion but we must get what is due to us.

“The present minimum wage for workers in the state is unacceptable to the labour center in the state. I beg the governor to consider my overture as an olive branch for fresh and proper negotiation for a lasting solution to the minimum wage saga.”

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