Organised Labour in Niger state has expressed its readiness to accept delays by the relevant ministries if that is what it will cost to ensure that worker’s October salary reflects the new minimum wage.
State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade ldrees Abdulkareem Lafene who disclosed this in a chat with newsmen said organized Labour already formally communicated their position to the state government in writing.
“Civil servants are not ready to collect salary based on the old order, we are ready to wait for them to tidy up their ends for the new salary structure”, Comrade Lafene insists.
If the workers will have to wait for a while to receive the new new minimum wage, it will be worth waiting because nobody is going to take anything less than the minimum wage starting from this month, October.
Comrade Lafene expressed optimism that Niger state government will honour its promises and implement the new minimum wage, adding however that Labour leaders in the state have been meeting with state government on this matter and that the meetings continues on Monday to possibly iron out some grey areas for smooth takeoff of the N70, 000 new minimum wage.
As part of workers, state government relationship, Lafene said Organized Labour in the state has advised the state government that if it cannot go above what the federal government has offered, at least it can simply adopt the one it (federal government) implemented for the benefit of all workers.
Comrade Lafene also hinted that the Organised Labour had met with the Governor before his latest travel and he kept assuring them that the don’t problems of implementation at the state level, adding however that his fears is what happens at the Local Government Councils level, where their salaries is almost four times better than that of the gtate government.
He however added that, while the staff strength of Local Government Areas is almost six times bigger than that of the state government, Organused Labour is considering that Local Government autonomy will also start this month.
Nevertheless, the NLC he further explained are also looking for other options to see how Local Governments fully implement the new minimum wage because whatever agreement they signed with Niger State Government there is no Chairman that will come out to say he cannot implement.