The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and States of the Federation are in dispute over the new National Minimum wage.
The December 31, 2019, issued to states to constitute and conclude the consequential adjustment on the new national minimum wage is only hours away and the NLC has kept mum
However, Chairman of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, JPCNC, Labour team, Adeniji Abdulrafiu told AIT’s Abulu Osemuaghu via telephone that Organised Labour always keeps to its words.
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Abdulrafiu said it is disheartening that only less than forty percent of states have complied with the directive to enable workers begin to enjoy the new wage.
The JPCNC Chairman advised state Government to treat the issue of adjusting the National Minimum wage as top priority ahead of the new year and as most of them are preparing and presenting their 2020 budget.
Meanwhile, AIT gathered that about 20 states have reduced their 2020 Budget by a cumulative of over seven hundred billion Naira, despite expectations to implement a new wage of thirty thousand Naira.
Organised Labour had asked states councils to adopt for negotiations the template approved at the federal level
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In the agreement, workers on salary Grade Level 07 will receive 23.2 per cent pay rise; those on GL 08, 20 per cent; and GL 09 to get 19 per cent.
Others are Officers on GLs 10 to 14 to receive 16 per cent hike and those on levels 15 to 17 to get 14 per cent upward review.
With the consolidated salary structures of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, the federal monthly wage bill will be approximately six hundred and eleven billion Naira.
Similarly, a directive has been given to ministries, agencies and departments to ensure that arrears of the new wage regime, from April when the Act came into effect, be cleared before the end of December 2019.
