The organised Labour has accused the state governors of working against a successful negotiation between the unions and the Federal Government over the new national minimum wage.
Reports suggested that the unwillingness of most of the state governors to commit to a reasonable new national minimum wage is putting pressure on the federal government to do the needful.
“The Federal Government is facing pressure from state governors not to give in to labour’s demand for higher wages,” a source within the labour said.
” The governors argue that they do not have the resources to pay higher wages. Despite ongoing negotiations, the government has been avoiding open discussions and labour leaders are aware of this.”
Another source said the federal government shares responsibility for the actions of the state governors.
He said: “From the onset, the federal government created this problem by choosing governors that have breached the 2019 Minimum Wage Act as members of the tripartite committee, representing the governors.
“Check, none of the six governors in the committee is labour-friendly. They never fully implemented the N30,000 minimum wage. I remember that the NLC president raised the issue when their names were announced as members representing the governors in the tripartite committee on the new national minimum wage.
“As we speak, many of them have refused to pay the wage award to their workers as a temporary measure to cushion the effects of the removal of petrol subsidy. Even some of them that agreed to pay have not paid more than two or three months. In fact, some of them are paying a meagre N10,000 or N15,000.
“They cannot run away from the reality. Whatever economic challenge we face today, they created it. They are all receiving more money from the federation account as a result of the removal of fuel subsidies and the excessive taxation of the people, among other sources of funds, such as IGR. They have no excuse or reason not to pay.
“We have lined up a series of industrial actions, including shutting down the economy, to speed up the process. We are just waiting for the May 31 deadline we gave on May Day to take the next line of action.”//
