New salary review will determine electoral preference of labour in 2019, say leaders

Organised labour unions in Bayelsa State yesterday said that the new national minimum wage would largely determine the electoral preference of workers during the 2019 general elections in the state.

Bayelsa State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), John Ndiomu and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Mr. Tari Dounana, stated this in Yenagoa during a protest on upward review of the national minimum wage to N30,000.

Ndiomu, who decried the delay in transmitting the recommendations of the tripartite committee on the new minimum wage to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, urged federal and state governments to make workers’ well-being their priority.He said workers in Bayelsa State were committed to supporting any government policies aimed at improving their welfare, and that only the new minimum wage would largely determine the electoral preference of Nigerian workers in 2019.

“We are going to say no to candidates in the forthcoming elections who hesitate or refuse to commit to the new minimum wage,” he said.The TUC Chairman described the national minimum wage as issue of law that must be supported and implemented for betterment of workers’ well-being.

Meanwhile, Chief of Staff, Bayelsa Government House, Mr. Talford Ongolo, who received the labour unions on behalf of Governor Seriake Dickson, said the state government was in support of the N30,000 new minimum wage. “I know Governor Seriake Dickson is committed to labour matters; we have had excellent relationship with the labour. We believe when the new minimum wage is passed into law, we will definitely implement it in the state,” he stated.