LABOUR leaders said on Monday they will insist on the ‘consequential increment’ in their negotiation with states on the payment of minimum wage. They threatened that any governor not ready to pay should be ready for a showdown.
Labour leaders who spoke in separate interviews on Monday said that the union leaders are united that states should pay as expected.
Secretary-General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Musa-lawal Ozigi, the governors were part of the minimum wage committee, and cannot say that do not know what transpired during the meetings.
Ozigi noted that all the governors in Nigeria receive the same salaries, including the states that cannot produce anything, hence the governors cannot deny their workers what they should get.
He stated that Labour has finished battling with the Federal Government and the consequential increase has been signed. The Labour leader said that once the template the unions signed with the Federal government is passed to the states, the unions will then know which state cannot implement or pay.
The General-Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Emmanuel Ugbaoja, on his own said that it will be a function of collective bargaining and not a function of directive from a governor. He noted that the leadership of labour in the various states will negotiate with the government in those states.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum had on Monday said that payment of minimum wage consequential adjustments will be determined by each state based on their Internal Generated Revenue.
The development comes just days after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) ordered that payments of the new minimum wage and the consequential adjustments must be completed by the 31st of December, 2019.
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