Public workers accuse FG of plot to scuttle minimum wage

Federal public servants yesterday accused the Federal Government of plotting to scuttle efforts at arriving at a new minimum wage for workers, warning of the dire consequences.

Speaking through the Trade Union Side, TUS, of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, JNPSNC, it stressed the need for both the federal and state governments to implement the new National Minimum Wage or face the wrath of workers.

In a statement issued in Abuja, the TUS Chairman,  Abdrafiu Adeniji and  Secretary, Alade Lawal, lamented that instead of the federal government to send a bill to the National Assembly to enact the 2018 National Minimum Wage Act, it had chosen to embark on a fruitless plot to subvert the entire negotiation that took more than one year to conclude.

The statement said: “How can the Federal Government want to sabotage a democratically agreed National Minimum Wage that was even voted for and agreed upon by all the stakeholders? We call on the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) that participated actively and fully in the negotiation to speak out and tell the world the whole truth on what transpired before the new National Minimum Wage was arrived at.


Labour is in the Exclusive Legislative list and as such the Federal Government should proceed to enact the National Minimum Wage Act instead of trying to intimidate workers by invoking a primitive labour law of no work no pay in this 21st century where the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is harping on international labour best practices.

“Nigerian workers are determined and no amount of intimidation will cow them from demanding for their right. The Federal Government should, therefore, send the National Minimum Wage bill to the National Assembly without further delay. Once the Federal Government sends the new National Minimum Wage bill to the National Assembly and it is passed into law, it will become binding on the state governments.”