Minimum Wage: Labour Gives Fresh Instruction To State Councils

The Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) has directed its state councils to start negotiations for the consequential adjustment and implementation of the new minimum wage.

Naijaparry had reported that the Nigerian government with the organised labour had on October 18th, 2019, agreed on consequential adjustments and percentage hike for workers in the Federal civil service.

But the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) had said states would only pay according to their financial strength.

While reacting to the development, the Chairman of the Council Simon Anchaver in a statement in Abuja, issued the governors a December 31st deadline for the implementation of the new minimum wage.

He said the Union had adopted the deregulate collective bargaining style so that state governments can also negotiate what they can afford provided it is not lower than the N30, 000 benchmark.

“Any governor that said he’ll not pay stands to be impeached,” he said.

Also speaking, the Secretary-General of the JNPSNC Alade Lawal said “Negotiation with state governments starts anytime from today, we have agreed that the joint national negotiating council should send letters to state governments which will be sent tomorrow, the draft for the letter is ready.

“We will first send it to our members’ email addresses in the states and then we will send the hard copy to the state governments, Negotiation starts immediately after the receipt of the letter,” he stated.

He added that “There are three documents handed over to the state negotiating council chairmen, the first one is the agreement we signed with the Federal Government on the consequential adjustment. I am sure the press already has it.

“We are expecting a circular from the National Income, Salaries and Wages Commission but we are being proactive. We have decided to develop a table on a consolidated public salary structure and the consolidated health sector salary arrangement.

“This is like a replica of the table that we are expecting from the NISWC based on the agreement that we signed with the FG. This was given to state negotiating council chairmen to serve as a guide so that they can have a view of what it looks like when they start their own negotiation in their states.

“It however does not serve as the circular we are expecting from the Federal Government
through the NISWC.

“The FG will still issue the circular in respect of the new wage structure so the one we have done is not binding but just a working document between us and our counterpart in states.

“The document will not hinder their negotiation with state governments.

“It is for the personal use of our members in the states, we are not forwarding it to the state governments.

“We are hopeful that by December 31, all negotiations should be wrapped up. In areas where we have difficulties, we have decided to move in as a group to shut down the space towards ensuring that implementation is done.

“The agreement we had with the FG is the minimum for the states. Some will go beyond it but no one will go below it.”