The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)
says its members will not be intimidated by threat from the Nigeria Governors
Forum (NGF) to sack workers if the new national minimum wage of N30,000 is
implemented.
Ayuba Wabba, NLC president, said
this in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja.
The governors had said paying
N30,000 new minimum wage would lead to bankruptcy, adding that only Lagos and
Rivers can afford it.
Abdulaziz Yari, governor of
Zamfara state and chairman of the NGF who spoke on behalf of his colleagues,
also said it was impossible to implement the N30,000 minimum wage without
downsizing the workforce all over the country.
Reacting to the governors’
stance, Wabba said Nigerians workers will vote out any governor who refuses to
implement as the new minimum wage.
He said threat to sack workers is
not new to the union, “therefore, the current one by the governor of Zamfara
cannot be used to intimidate labour.”
He accused some political leaders
of wanting to enslave Nigerians workers with meagre salary, asking them to
compare “their humongous salaries” with the N30,000 new minimum wage demanded
by the union.
“The consequences of workers
retrenchment are too grievous for any political office holder truly elected by
the people to contemplate,” the statement read.
“Few political office holders are
bent on enslaving Nigerian workers with peanuts mislabeled as salaries.
“We urge such elected public
officials to subject their humongous salaries and allowances, reputed to be
among the highest in the world to public perusal pro rata with the minimum wage
they want to force down the throats of Nigerian workers.
“To the oppressors, we have only
one answer for you, we will never sleep on our rights.
“We hereby reiterate our
directive to Nigerian workers to vote out any politician or political party
that refuses to pay the new national minimum wage of N30, 000.
“We shall continue to consolidate
our efforts to strengthen already existing platforms and structures to give
teeth to our resolve to vote out anti-labour.
“It would interest Nigerians to
know that the new national minimum wage of N30,000 was a product of intense and
robust negotiations at the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation
Committee that lasted for one year.
“At the National Minimum Wage
Tripartite Negotiation Committee, state governments were represented by six
states, one state from each of the six geo-political zones.”
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