N35,000 Wage Award: Labour Unions Gives Govs Ultimatum

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have issued a two-week deadline for governors to commence negotiations on the N35,000 wage award for workers in their states.

Naija News understands that the organised labour unions are making the demands in line with the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Federal government.

State chapters of NLC and TUC on Tuesday disclosed that they have written to governors to fast-track the necessary protocols and implement the award meant to assuage the subsidy removal pains.

According to the unions, the deadline for payment of the wage award would expire in the next two weeks.

Recall that the national leadership of the NLC and TUC on October 1 reached an agreement with the FG to pay N35,000 to all federal workers beginning from September, pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.

The resolution provided that the wage award would be paid to the federal workers for six months while states were encouraged to extend the same benefit to their workers.

Labour had cancelled its nationwide strike scheduled for the 3rd of October, 2023 with the promise that wage awards would be implemented within 30 days effective from the day the MoU was signed.

The Kano State NLC Chairman, Kabiru Inuwa speaking with Punch revealed he had written to the state government to demand the immediate implementation of the N35,000 wage award in the state.

Inuwa said, “We have written to the government requesting for the payment of the wage award to workers in the state and we are still waiting for the government to respond.”

He noted that the deadline given by the NLC to the federal and state governments to implement the wage award and other welfare packages for the workers would soon expire.

He expressed the hope that the state government would pay the wage award before the expiration of the deadline.

Inuwa added, “The ultimatum given to both state and federal governments will expire by the end of this month, so we hope the government will start the payment before the end of the deadline.”

The Gombe State NLC Secretary, Ibrahim Fika, on his part, said the 30-day ultimatum, which is now remaining two weeks, applied to workers in state governments.

He said, “The ultimatum says the state councils should negotiate with the state government. So it applies to us.”