The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has advised governors who will not be able to meet up with the payment of the new N30,000 minimum wage to resign or face impeachment.
The advice was given during the weekend and comes as labour union leaders get set to meet in Abuja tomorrow to negotiate the consequential adjustment of the N30,000 minimum wage at the state level.
The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) had said last week that the federal government couldn’t enforce the consequential agreement on them, stating that the capacity of the states was a determining factor on their ability to pay.
Emma Ugboaja, NLC General Secretary, declared that they would make sure that all governors paid the new wage and that no worker would be taken advantage of.
We can’t play the script of governors. It is criminal not to pay wages. Any governor that is not paying wages should be impeached. Nigeria has fixed the new wage, and they participated throughout the discussion, so there is no basis for any of them to now come up with excuses. Any governor that gives excuse, we will mobilize for his impeachment.
We challenged them; none of them can tell us that they are not flying private jets twice to thrice a week. So, they can’t turn around to tell us that payment of N30,000 is a big issue. We are really waiting to see a governor that will dare us by violating the law.
The challenge we have managing minimum wage is government, not the private sector. You can recall that Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA, backed us throughout the negotiation. We will definitely work with the unions in the private sector to ensure compliance.
Emma Ugboaja – vanguardngr.com
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