The Trade Union Congress in Ekiti State, has appealed to the Federal Government not to take the negotiation on the new minimum wage beyond Wednesday August 14.
Chairman of the state senior staff union , Sola Adigun disclosed this in a statement in Ado Ekiti , even as he reiterated organised labour’s commitment to the new wage.
He said, “The struggle for the implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage is total. Anything beyond August 14 will leave labour with no choice than industrial action.”
The TUC leader further accused the Federal Government of foot dragging the implementation even when the private sector has expressed readiness to pay.
Adigun noted that :“Any government that is serious about fighting corruption will pay living wages to its workers”
Meanwhile , the Federal Government has attributed the delay in the implementation of the “Consequential Adjustment” of the N30, 000 new minimum wage to the unrealistic demands of labour unions.
The Chairman, National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, Chief Richard Egbule made this a chat with newsmen , explaining that the current demand of the labour unions would raise the total wage bill too high and that was why government could not accept their proposed salary adjustments.
Labour is asking for consequential adjustment and government in its wisdom had made budgetary provision for an adjustment of N10, 000 across the board for those already earning above N30, 000 per month.
“However, the Unions have refused this offer, saying that because the increase in minimum wage from 18,000 to N30, 000 was 66 per cent, therefore they want 66 per cent increment across the board.
We told them that the minimum wage was not raised from N18, 000 to N30, 000 through percentage increase but as a result of consideration of economic factors including ability to pay.
“However, we said that if they want consequential adjustments in percentage terms, we will use a percentage that when applied will not exceed what has been provided for in the budget.
“The computation based on a percentage which government had given to labour, was 9.5 per cent from level 7 to 14 including level 1-6 of those salary structures that did not benefit from the minimum wage.
