Pay minimum wage or vacate your offices, Labour tells governors

The organised labour has appealed to state Houses of Assembly to identify with workers by compelling governors to pay the new minimum wage.

Mr Emmanuel Ugboaja, General-Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), made the appeal while fielding questions from journalists on Sunday in Lagos.

According to Ugboaja, any governor who refuses to pay the minimum wage should be impeached.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum had said that the state governors would not pay beyond their individual capacities.

However, the NLC scribe said that there was no basis for the governors to complain about payment of the N30,000 minimum wage.

He said that they had the capacity to pay.

“It is criminal to say you cannot pay the new minimum wage.

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“Some of these leaders ride in private jets, so they can pay,’’ Ugboaja said.

He said that the organised labour was in support of the return of the Labour Advisory Council, which would help to mediate between government and workers.

He urged the Federal Government to take actions against employers who would not pay the new wage.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari signed the N30,000 minimum wage law on April 18.

After that, labour and the government debated heavily on the consequential adjustment of workers’ salaries.

On October 18, both parties agreed on 23.2 percentage increase for workers on grade level 07 and 20 per cent for those on grade level 08, while 19 per cent would be received by workers on grade level 09, sixteen per cent for those from levels 10 to 14 and 14 per cent for grade levels 15 to 17. (NAN)