Minimum wage

The All Workers Convergence(AWC) has declared that the non-implementation of the new national minimum wage of N30,000 is capable of discouraging high productivity among workers.

The AWC made this declaration through its National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze.

''What the Minister of Labor and the Federal Government do not know is that the poor pay of workers and the non-implementation of the N30,000 new national minimum wage  will not encourage  the high productivity of workers and this is also an indication of the failure of governance.''

''The pronouncement of the Minister of Labor, Dr. Chris Ngige is very unfortunate, though we are aware that workers of Grade Levels 01 to 06 in the Federal Civil Service have had their salaries adjusted with a very meager amount. To us in the AWC, the payment is just an award from government and until the new minimum wage issue is resolved, implementation is yet to commence'', Comrade Emelieze state.

The All Workers Convergence(AWC) has declared that  the scheduled meeting between members of the National Joint Civil Service Negotiating Council and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is inimical to the interests of Nigerian workers.

The AWC made this declaration known through its National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze.

‘’Meeting at this very critical period is very dangerous for the labour movement and Nigerian workers. We are afraid, government is attempting to buy over the labour leaders and so after the meeting labour leaders would start singing another song.’’

‘’We therefore urge Nigerian workers to be ready to take personal action in their various work places, while the AWC insists that workers would never accept another table that does not reflect the interest of Nigerian workers’’.

‘’To this end, we have started mobilizing in Ibadan, to lock up the Federal Secretariat complex indefinitely on Monday 29th July, 2019 in protest against the non-implementation of the new national minimum wage and insecurity in the country, if the meeting on Wednesday between the labour leaders and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is not positive.’’

‘’The AWC calls on workers across the federation to convoke meetings and decide their fate, irrespective of the agitations by the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) and the Trade Union Congress(TUC), Comrade Emelieze stated.

The Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita recently disclosed that the workers were making unrealistic demands.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to implementing the new national minimum wage and that is why the presidential committee on the consequential adjustment arising from the minimum wage has been sitting to deliberate on it.

“And in fact, it has sat with the union leadership within the public service to come out with the consequential adjustment arising from the new minimum wage. There were a few, what I will call unrealistic demands from the unions’’, Mrs. Oyo-Ita stated.

The Head of Service also disclosed that the new national minimum wage was targeted at the low income earners, and as a result the Federal Government would not allow the demands of the Senior Staff unions to affect its implementation.