GOVERNORS should include the payment of the new national minimum wage in
their 2019 Appropriation Bills, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has
counselled.
Labour said doing so remained the only to avoid
friction and crisis in the New Year, adding that the state governments
are buoyant enough to pay the N30, 000 being demanded for workers as
minimum wage.
NLC President Ayuba Wabba told The Nation in a chat
that the minimum expectations from workers as the President presents
the national budget “is for provisions to be made in the budget for the
implementation of the minimum wage.”
Wabba, who recently became
the first African and the first black man to be elected President of the
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), described as
unfortunate that workers continued to bear the brunt of economic
hardship, with nobody fighting their cause whenever the economy
improves.
He said that governors only say they cannot implement
the minimum wage because of how they have handled the resources at their
disposal, saying the issue has nothing to do with the availability of
resources.
Wabba said: “Legally, the minimum wage due and the
President has openly told the world that he is committed to it. Our
minimum expectation is that the minimum wage be accommodated in the
budget and for workers to actually begin to benefit from it.
“There
is no two way about this because it is legitimately due. So, Nigerian
workers should not be made to suffer the consequences of what they are
not responsible for. When the economy is doing well, nobody bothers
about workers. But when the economy is worse, the workers will be at the
receiving end because in most cases, they are not paid.
“So,
when the economy is doing well and when it is not, we have not actually
received the desired attention. So, our expectation is that since
everybody mutually agreed, the minimum wage should be a priority.”
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