Joe Ajaero, NLC President
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says that the N35,000 wage award agreement with the Federal Government will continue until a new minimum wage is determined.
It would be recalled that President Bola Tinubu, on October 1, had approved N35,000 as the provisional wage increment for all Treasury-paid workers for six months.
This was part of an agreement reached with organised labour to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.
However, the federal government has only paid two months of the wage award that commenced in September 2023.
Ajaero, while speaking against the backdrop of the payment of the wage award, said the payment would run for only six months before the commencement of the national minimum wage.
According to him, we did not sign a six-month wage agreement with the Federal Government; we signed a wage agreement that will be in existence until the new minimum wage is determined.
“We are in the process of collating the compliance of the federal government on the payment of the wage award, and we have even had a conversation with the leadership of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on this.
“We have asked our affiliates to collate the level of compliance with this, and we are still waiting for their correspondents.
“Even last week, during a courtesy call, I raised the issue with the Minister of Labour and Employment on that; it is not just the wage award; the entire agreement we had with them, they have not conceded to it,’’ he said.
Ajaero noted that other issues that were yet to be implemented by the federal government include the Port Harcourt refineries, CNG buses, and wage awards, among others.
He, however, assured workers that the issues were being looked into holistically.
According to him, I have asked the federal government to go through all the agreements they have entered into with us because that is where we are starting the year.
“We are not starting the year with even the minimum wage; we have to look at the sanity and compliance of the agreement already entered into with the government.
“So far, it has not been rosy; there seems to be nobody keeping up with the agreement, and at a time like this, we need to get it right at the beginning of the year, so we are working on this issue seriously,” he said.
NAN
