N30,000 NMW: TUC won’t shift ground on consequential adjustments—President
The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Quadri Olaleye, has expressed lack of confidence on the way and manner the Federal Government has continued to delay the implementation of N30, 000 new minimum wage (NMW).
In an interview, he made it clear that the organized labour may be forced to issue ultimatum to the government to either align with the stand of labour which is not shifting position on its demand for 30 per cent increase for officers on grade levels 7 to 14 and 25 per cent increase for grade levels 15 to 17, or face strike action by workers.
According to him, his stand has become necessary considering the observed delay tactics deployed by the government implementation of the NMW.
Recall that the representatives of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council on the technical committee set up to negotiate consequential adjustments arising from the new minimum wage, had disagreed with the government proposal of 9.5 per cent salary increase for employees on Grade Levels 07 to 14 and five per cent for those on Grade Levels 15 to 17.
In his submission, Olaleye averred that “We have made presentation to the Federal Government on this issue but it seems that the government is not ready to yield to the expectation of Nigerian workers. We are supporting the JNPSNC on this issue.
“The implementation of the new minimum wage of N30, 000 should have been done a long time ago since President Muhammadu Buhari signed it on April 18, 2019, but government is dragging the matter needlessly. With the way things are, it seems the government is not interested in its implementation.
“We are going to issue an ultimatum to the FG soon. We want the negotiation to resume before going ahead. However, if there is no solution to the problem of implementation in the next two weeks, we will issue the ultimatum. We have started mobilising our members already.”
Continuing, the TUC new President stressed that “The position of the NJNC to call on workers to go on strike is supported by the TUC. But we want to give the government an opportunity to do something about it before taking action over the non-implementation of the new minimum wage.
“We reject government proposal of 9.5 per cent salary raise for employees on Grade Levels 07 to 14 and five per cent for those on Grade Levels 15 to 17. We have come down from about 66 per cent raise but we cannot agree on what government is pushing to us. Government should expect our action any time if nothing is done,” TUC boss affirmed.
