Kwara labour declares indefinite strike over minimum wage
The organised labour in Kwara state has declared it would begin strike from the early hours of Tuesday, following the state government’s failure to honour its ultimatum on the payment of the new minimum wage.
This resolution is contained in a statement jointly signed by the state Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Aliyu Issa Ore, Ag state Chairman Trade Union Congress (TUC) Ezekiel Adegoke and state Chairman, Joint Negotiating Council (JNC-TUS) Saliu Suleiman, after an enlarged meeting of the labour movement on Monday in Ilorin, the state capital.
The resolution, made available to newmen, partly reads, “This is to inform all workers in the State Public Service and the Local Governments that at the close of work Today, Monday 12th October, 2020, if the Kwara State Government fails to meet the demands of the workers which include the signing and implementation of the new minimum wage of N30,000 to all categories of workers of the State and Local Government as well as penioners in the state and Local Government, all workers should as from tomorrow Tuesday 13th october, 2020 commence industrial action.
“Every worker should remain at home as any any ministry or offices will be seriously dealt with.
“No worker should come to the work until they were directed by the leadership of the labour movement.
“We will make sure that nobody is victimized or harrassed by government in this respect.”
THE INFORMANT247 earlier reported that the labour leaders had given the state government 14-day ultimatum to start payment of the new national minimum wage at a press conference in Ilorin on September 28.
However, the State Commissioner for Information, Harriet Afolabi-Oshatimehin, responding to the ultimatum in a statement lastweek Wednesday, said the payment of the proposed minimum wage is not practicable for the local government workers.
“The challenge however has been how the Local governments can afford it. At the moment, all the local governments combined earn an average of N2.6bn monthly, including the 10 percent of their share of the IGR. Remarkably, the monthly wage bill of these local governments stands at about N2.5bn. These expenses, it must be stated, are based on the extant N18,000 minimum wage,” the Commissioner stated.
She added that when the new minimum wage is considered, including the consequential adjustments, the wage bill will shoot up to around N3 billion, adding that the earnings of the local governments cannot afford such at this time.
“The government is committed to paying the minimum wage but it is pleading with the labour to accept a more reasonable scale which takes the total wage bill to less than N3bn.
We call for reasonable and practical steps to avoid a situation which will lead to the local government borrowing to pay salaries as was the case before this administration,” she said.
Also, the governor had in March told labour leaders at a consultation meeting in Ilorin, the state capital, that he was ready to sign the deal if he would not be held responsible if the councils default, observing that the councils are at present struggling to pay the N18,000 minimum wage and even had to draw from their savings and IGR before paying February salary.
However, the labour unions unanimously urged him to sign the deal and leave the local government authorities to draw up the modalities to pay, including working with the government to weed out ghost workers, cleanse the payroll, and reduce the wage bill.
