FG’s N35,000 wage award to continue until new minimum wage determined – Ajaero

Jan. 15, 2024

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says that the N35,000 wage award agreement with the Federal Government will continue until a new minimum wage is determined.

Mr. Joe Ajaero, NLC President, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

It would be recalled that President Bola Tinubu on Oct.1, had approved N35,000 as the provisional wage increment for all treasury-paid workers for six months.

This was part of an agreement reached with the organised labour to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.

However, the federal government have only paid two months of the wage award that commenced in September 2023.

Ajaero, while speaking against the backdrop of the payment of the wage award, said the payment would run for only six months before the commencement of the national minimum wage.

According to him, we did not sign six months wage award with the Federal Government, we sign a wage award that will be in existence until the new minimum wage is determined.

“We are in the process of collating the compliance of the federal government on the payment of the wage award and we have even had a conversation with the leadership of the Trade Union Congress(TUC) on this .

“We have asked our affiliates to collate the level of compliance to this and we are still waiting for their correspondents.

“Even last week, during a courtesy call, I raised the issue with the Minister of Labour and Employment on that, it is not just the wage award, the entire agreement we had with them, they have not conceded to it,’’ he said.

Ajaero noted that other issues that were yet to be implemented by the federal government includes the Port Harcourt refineries, CNG buses, wage award, among others.

He however, assured workers that the issues were being looked into holistically.

According to him, I have asked the federal government to go through all the agreement they have entered with us because that is where we are starting the year from.

“We are not starting the year from even minimum wage, we have to look at the sanity and compliance to the agreement already entered with the government.

`So far, it has not been rosy, there seems to be nobody that is keeping tap with the agreement and at a time like this, we need to get it right at the beginning of the year, so we are working on this issues seriously,” he said.(NAN)