Nigeria

Minimum Wage: Labour issues deadline to governors for implementation

Wednesday, November 06, 2019 at 3:57 PM by Kess Ewubare

- Labour union, JNPSNC says it has instructed its state councils to commence negotiations with state governors on the implementation of the new minimum wage structure

- The chairman of the union, Simon Anchaver, notes that the union has adopted the deregulated collective bargaining style to ensure that state governments also negotiate what they can afford

- Anchaver insists that the JNPSNC will not permit any state governor to negotiate below the N30,000 benchmark

Labour union, the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), has given state governors December 31, 2019, as the deadline for implementation of the new N30,000 minimum wage.

The chairman of the council, Simon Anchaver, at a meeting in Abuja said the union has instructed its state councils to commence negotiations with the state governors on the implementation of the new wage structure, The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

He said the union has adopted the deregulated collective bargaining style to ensure that state governments also negotiate what they can afford. The labour leader stated that the union will not permit any state governor to negotiate below the N30,000 benchmark.

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Anchaver warned that any state governor who refuses to implement the new N30,000 minimum wage stands to be impeached.

Also, the secretary-general of the JNPSNC, Alade Lawal, said the union would send letters to its state councils telling them to commence negotiations with state governors.

Lawal expressed the hope that the negotiations JNPSNC unions will have at the state level would be above the agreed benchmark. He said the N30,000 national minimum wage is the lowest any state council would agree to.

Meanwhile, the organised labour has appealed to state Houses of Assembly to identify with workers by compelling governors to pay the new minimum wage.

Emmanuel Ugboaja, the general secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), made the appeal while answering questions from journalists on Sunday, November 4, in Lagos state, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. According to Ugboaja, any governor who refuses to pay the minimum wage should be impeached.