Minimum Wage: Niger NLC consents to October salary delay

The Niger State Council of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said the congress is ready to accept delayed payment for the 2024 October salary to facilitate the implementation of the new minimum wage.

The state NLC chairman, ldrees Abdulkareem Lafene, disclosed this in Minna over the weekend while speaking to newsmen.

Lafene noted that NLC had already written to the Niger State Government on its acceptance to wait for a delayed October salary, adding that if the new minimum wage will be implemented, the labour will not take anything less than the minimum wage in October.

The Niger State NLC leadership, while assuring that the state government will implement the new minimum wage soon, said the labour has been meeting with state officials on the matter and that they are also going to meet on Monday, October 21, 2024, to iron out some grey areas.

Lafene also disclosed that the council has advised the state government that if it cannot go further than what the federal government has implemented, it can simply adopt that of the federal government for the benefit of all.

He further stressed that the state NLC met with Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago before he travelled out of the state and had assured them that there would not be problems of implementation at the state level, saying his fears are at the local government level, where the staff strength is almost six times bigger than that of the state government, considering that local government autonomy will start this month.

The NLC Chairman also explained that they are also looking for other options to see how local governments implement the new minimum wage fully, because according to him, whatever agreement they signed with the Niger State Government, there is no Chairman that will come out to say he cannot implement.

He, however, urged the state civil servants to be patient as well as to pray for the NLC towards ensuring the attainment of these noble objectives so that at the end of it, it will be a win-win situation for all.

Recalled that some state governments have commenced the implementation of the new minimum wage; others are yet, which has forced the NLC at the national level to give an instruction that every state must implement the new minimum wage by October.