The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has faulted governors negotiating with the labour unions in their states over the payment of the minimum wage to workers.
The Minister said this as a guest on ChannelsTelevision’s Sunday Politics, that President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Minimum WageRepeal and Re-Enactment Act, 2019 into law on April 18, 2019.
Two years after the President assented to the Act, some states have begun to pay civil servants the new minimum wage while others still struggle to do so as a result of inadequate funds.
According to him, the Act makes it compulsory for all employers of labour in the country to pay a minimum of N30,000 to their workers and gives workers compelled to accept salary less than the amount the right to sue their employer to recover the balance.
It also authorises the Minister of Labour and any person nominated or designated by the minister to take action against such an employer on behalf of the worker to recover the balance of the wages.
OBSERVERS TIMES recall that, The Organised Labour in Kogi, on Saturday, appealed to Gov. Yahaya Bello to implement the N30,000 minimum wage in the state.
The unions also urged the governor to address the issue of salary percentage payment to local government workers and teachers.
Chairman of the state chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Onu Edoka, made the appeal in his address at a rally commemorating the 2021 Workers’ Day at Confluence Stadium, Lokoja.
Edoka said that workers in the state could no longer cope with the prevailing economic situation in the country.
He said that two years after President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the N30,000 minimum wage bill into law, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, had yet to commence implementation.
Addressing the issue, Ngige said , “If you read the Act well, you will see the applicability of the Act. The applicability is that all parts of the Federation (Section II); Section III also says N30,000 shall be paid, the operating word is shall.
“It does not give room for picking and choosing, it is a must. The state governors that are not paying are breaching the law of the land.”
He noted that any employer paying its employee below N30,000 was doing The law, however, excludes persons employing less than 25 workers, persons who work in a ship that sails out of jurisdiction, and others in other kinds of regulated employment that are accepted by the Act.so in contravention of the law.
According to him, governors are getting the issues mixed up as the minimum wage is different from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
He stated, “This is a national law that states what you will pay to the lowest-paid employee (worker) in your establishment; state governments are employers… they are caught in the web of this law until repealed.
“Any state government or employer that negotiates minimum wage like some of them are doing with their unions, they are running afoul of the law.
“I can take any employer to court. If governors have immunity, I can start from the secretary to the government, to the head of service, and go down to the State Executive Council; take them all to courtand I do not need any permission.”
