Industrial action may be looming across the country as over 20 states have yet to commence negotiations with their state chapters of the Nigeria Labour Congress as per the N30,000 minimum wage approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Findings revealed that barely four weeks to the expiration of the December 31, 2019 deadline issued by the NLC to states to complete all negotiations regarding how much they will pay their workers, only Lagos, Kaduna and Kebbi states had come up with their minimum wage offers.
While about six state governments are currently negotiating with their respective state chapters of the NLC, over 20 states have yet to begin negotiations with the labour union.
The labour on Friday said of the three states which had released their minimum wage offers to workers, only that of Lagos State was accepted by the union.
The labour said it rejected the minimum wage offered by Kaduna and Kebbi state governments because they were inadequate and done without inputs from the state chapters of the labour union.
The labour accused governors of the over 20 states which have yet to commence negotiations of deliberately delaying the process to achieve motives yet to be ascertained.
Specifically, the labour claimed some governors deliberately twisted the process to short-change workers in their states.
After a lengthy negotiation spanning 182 days, the labour and the Federal Government on October 18 reached an agreement on a consequential increase in workers’ salaries at the federal level.
Negotiations then moved to states after the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council met its state counterparts in Abuja and sent letters to all state governments to begin negotiating with the councils.
A December 31 deadline was also set for the states to complete all negotiations and pay workers the new wage structure and all the arrears.
In an exclusive interview with journalists on Friday, the Secretary of the JNPSNC, Alade Lawal, said the labour would write another letter to states that had not complied with its directive on negotiation this week.
He said, “For now, negotiations are moving on but not at the pace we want. Only Lagos State has completed negotiations.
“In Kaduna State, the governor declared an amount but the negotiation was done without the input of labour. The salary level is very low already and even with what the governor has proposed to pay, the salaries of workers in the state cannot still be compared to those of workers in other states.
“We have negotiations going on in Kano, Delta, Ebonyi and Akwa Ibom states. We are having positive signals from those ends. Some other states like Ondo and Kogi are warming up to begin negotiations.
“We have a problem in Kebbi State. Negotiation began in the state but midway before it could be completed, the governor went ahead and issued a unilateral circular.
“He started giving N7,000 increase in salaries of workers across the board, that is, irrespective of their ranks and positions in service.
“As far as we are concerned, minimum wage has not been implemented in Kebbi State and we are asking the governor to go back to the negotiation table and do the right thing. If he fails to do this, we will meet and give an appropriate directive to our members to withdraw their services. You cannot deceive anyone at this stage.”
Lawal said the council at the national level had divided itself into groups to closely monitor negotiations in the states.
Asked what labour would do if, by December 31, 2019, negotiations had not completed in some states, the JNPSNC secretary said each state would be judged on the merit of the sincerity of the government.
He said, “To monitor what is going on in the states properly, we have divided ourselves into groups so that we can quickly and easily intervene in states where there is deadlock.
“The deadline is December 31, 2019 for all negotiations to be completed and for employees to get their money from their state governments.
“But if for one reason or the other there is the sincerity of purpose in the attitude of a state government and negotiation drags beyond the date, we will judge the situation based on its merit. But in a situation where negotiations have not even started at all by that date, you can be assured that we will react in such states.
“Once we are in the first week of December and we are not getting the expected signal, we will write the concerned states and remind them of the deadline. We can then move in and deal with such recalcitrant state.”
Lawal also accused some state governments of being lazy and not taking the minimum wage issue with the deserved seriousness.
He said, “What we have observed is that most state governments are lazy in their attitude towards the minimum wage issue. Immediately the bill was signed into law and negotiations began at the national level, we expected the states to start looking at their revenue base and what they are going to do.
Good journalism costs a lot of money, only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, accountability democracy and a transparent government.
For continued free access to the best investigative journalism, we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble profession.
