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NLC vows to vote out anti-workers governors, protests in Kano

By Murtala Adewale, Kano
09 January 2019   |   3:40 am
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliate bodies have restated their earlier threat to vote out all state governors that fail to implement the N30,000 minimum wage.

Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) protesting against the non-implementation of the new minimum wage in Kaduna… yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliate bodies have restated their earlier threat to vote out all state governors that fail to implement the N30,000 minimum wage.Besides, the organised labour warned the Federal Government of the grievous implication if the President fails to transmit the bill on the new minimum wage to the National Assembly.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, represented by Deputy National President, Kiri Mohammad, at the Congress state secretariat along Katsina Road, who chided the state governors who are still opposed to the implementation of the N30,000, challenged them to cut down what he considered wasteful spendings to pay the new minimum wage.

Wabba said that some state governors, rather than accepting the new salary package, had chosen to indulge in provocative lies, claiming that negotiations were inconclusive.

According to him, “we must emphasise that more than two-thirds of the state governments submitted memoranda that stated their positions on the new national minimum wage. Some states even proposed to pay higher than the N30,000. Employers in the private sector also submitted their own memoranda to the tripartite committee.

“Organised labour submitted a demand of N66,500 but after prolonged debate, N30,000 was eventually agreed upon as a compromised figure by the three social partners and the report submitted to the President on November 6, 2018.

“We propose that since a few political office holders are bent on enslaving Nigerian workers with peanuts mislabelled as salaries, we urge our politicians to subject their humungous salaries and allowances, reputed to be among the highest in the world, to the same scale as the minimum wage they want to force down the throats of Nigerian workers.”

The NLC president, however, reminded governments to be ready for mass retrenchment if they insist on their no-work-pay policy.However, Kano State Chairman of the NLC, Kabiru Ado Mingibir, told journalists that workers are ready for the worse if the Federal Government chooses to remain adamant on the new minimum wage. Mingibir said the mass protest would be moved to Government House where a letter of protest would be submitted to the governor.

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