Minimum wage: We can’t guarantee industrial harmony in states beyond December 31 —Wabba

What is the gathering about?

It is a one-day stakeholders meeting on the implementation of the 30,000 minimum wage at the state level, you are aware that the process has been completed at the national level, including the issues of  consequential adjustment and what is remaining is for the states and local governments to implement. We have called a meeting of all the state council chairpersons of the Nigerian Labour Congress as well as the Joint Public Service Negotiation Council (JPSNC) and also the Head of Services of selected states of the federation.

 

Expectations?

It is actually a social dialogue process that we want to know where we are in every state and we will also be able to take some decision so that the implementation can be done seamlessly because we don’t want any worker to be left behind. We all go to the same market and certainly the economy affects all category of workers and our expectation is that this meeting will be able to serve as a guide and also give them the necessary technical details to be able to go and drive this process effectively so that we can be able to conclude all the process of implementing the national minimum wage at the state council level.

 

Effective take-off date?

All of us are aware that from the day the President sign the minimum wage law Act into law, it becomes enforceable. It can’t be enforced through court of law and certainly there is no excuse for any state to say that they are not going to respect a law that is actually base on the constitution. The national minimum wage is actually a constitutional issue, so, it is about respecting our laws and also respecting  international conventions and procedures. Most importantly it is to respect the principles of Tripartism and Social Dialogue in addressing industrial relations issues. You can see that we are providing this guide, so that we can also play our role effectively as a national labour congress, as workers organisation to be able to see that there is seamless implementation and where there are challenges, we are also ready to intervene. So, here we are in this meeting which had the support of the International Labour Organisation and also the participation of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

 

Inability of states to pay N30,000?

We have gone beyond that level. As I said it is already a law, saying that you are not going to comply with an existing law that draws its strength from the Constitution certainly is out of place. So, where we are now is that we have three scenarios, we have states that have already implemented and are paying, we have states that are discussing implementation modalities, and  we have states that have not actually started any process. We are going to know where we are by each states and we will also take a unified decision that will drive the process together.

 

Affordability to pay?

I am not aware of any governor  that will say he will not respect any provision of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or an Act of parliament that was signed by the President. I have not heard of any such that any governor said he will not respect the law. I don’t think so, what I heard is that N30,000 is already a law and that will be the basis, you can pay higher but you can’t pay below N30,000, that was what the law provides for. This is where we are and what we are doing find out the situation of where every state is and local government in terms of the implementation process.

 

JPSNC December 31 deadline to states?

This is a higher organ. It is  a decision that is taken here that is binding because our state council chairperson may not be part of the joint council that is why we thought there should be a synergy of bringing the joint council leadership and also state council of the National Labour Congress so that together we can take a decision that will be binded by everybody. This is a platform for such a decision and at the end of the meeting we will be able to give you the decision of what the committee are. One thing that is sure is that December 31 is very feasible, and we cannot guarantee industrial harmony in any state that failed to commence implementation by the end of December.