Minimum Wage: Labour Issues Fresh Ultimatum To Government

TUC Gives Deadline For Minimum Wage Implementation

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has warned the federal government to stop ‘foot dragging’ on the payment of the new minimum wage to Nigerian workers.

The Ekiti State Chairman of the TUC, Sola Adigun, who made the latest call, urged the Federal Government not to take the negotiation on the new minimum wage beyond Wednesday, August 14.

According to the labour leader, “The struggle for the implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage is total. Anything beyond August 14 will leave labour with no choice than industrial action.”

Adigun who spoke in a statement in Ado Ekiti further accused the Federal Government of “foot dragging the implementation even when the private sector has expressed readiness to pay.”

“Any government that is serious about fighting corruption will pay living wages to its workers,” he added.

The TUC leader also urged the government not to overtax the little increase on the wages to common workers, but rather any high tax regime should be imposed on wealthy Nigerians.

Naija News recalls President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2019, signed the new minimum wage bill into law which is expected to guarantee the payment of N30,000 monthly to the least paid Nigerian worker.

Earlier, lawmakers in the Senate and the House of Representatives had passed the minimum wage bill and adopted the N30,000 figure.

President Buhari had severally expressed the commitment of his administration to implementing the new minimum wage regime.

The federal government has already set up a minimum wage implementation committee to work out the modality for payment while some states have also constituted a negotiation team to work on the new minimum wage regime.

Naija News further reports that the negotiation between the Federal Government and the Joint National Public Negotiation Council broke down because of differences in percentage increase in the salaries of workers.