The organised labour, yesterday, said the revenue of state governments would determine the consequential adjustment on the new minimum wage it would accept.
Reacting to a comment by the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Dr Fayemi Kayode, that the agreement between and organised labour on consequential adjustment of the N30,000 minimum wage was not binding on state governments, the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), Comrade Simon Achaver, said labour would rely on the revenue accrued to each state in determining what it should pay.
It would be recalled that the NGF Chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, had said last Monday while briefing reporters at the end of a meeting of the 36 state governors at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, in Abuja, that agreement and directive on consequential adjustment apply only to federal workers.
“I am sure you know the FEC does not determine what happens in the states, the states have their own state executive councils and that is the highest decision-making body at the state level.
“The forum (NGF) as the representative body of the states followed what happened in the negotiations that transpired. As far as we are concerned, the best that the forum can do is stick to what has been agreed with states.”
Fayemi said while the state governments have accepted the N30,000 baseline, each would negotiate with its workers on the implementation and the consequential adjustments.
“States were part of the tripartite negotiation and agreed to N30,000 minimum wage. But states also know there will be consequential adjustments. That would be determined by what happened on a state-by-state basis because there are different numbers of workers at the state level, there are different issues at the state level.
“Every state has its own trade union, with a negotiating committee and they would undertake this discussion with their state government. That is simply what we have said”, Fayemi added.
However, in a chat with newsmen, yesterday, Achaver said the revenue of a state would be the main factor on the rate of consequential adjustment it agrees with such a state.
“Since it is a law, the state government must pay, first and foremost, they should declare how much they are collecting from their respective state revenue then we will know if it is commensurable to pay minimum wage,” he said.
He added that “once they (state governments) disclose their revenue, they can negotiate and that should be supervised by the national officers so that we can avoid situations where some labour leaders will be in the hands of the state government”.
According to him, “a meeting of National Joint Council 1, 2, 3 will hold on November 5, and we will address the joint councils at the various states. We will give them templates that will guide them on the implementation.
“We are ready for shut down, if any of the agreements is breached,” he warned.
Achaver’s position was reiterated by the General Secretary of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Emma Ugboaja.
In an interview with newsmen, yesterday, Ugboaja said no state could discard the fact that a minimum wage of N30,000 would be at the centre of every negotiation.
“Everybody will negotiate differently based on the state economy but what is sacrosanct is the minimum wage of N30,000 and how that will be adjusted across the board is the function of collective bargaining between the workforce and government,” he said.
President Muhammadu Buhari signed the new minimum wage bill into law on April 18.
But its implementation had been stalled over salary adjustments and disagreement between the labour unions and government representatives.
Specifically, the problem centred around the issue of relativity and consequential adjustments of salaries for various categories of workers.
The Federal Government then argued that the minimum wage was for junior-level workers (levels 1 to 7) and that salary increase for other categories of worker would have to be negotiated.
On May 14, the Federal Government inaugurated the relativity and consequential adjustment committee, which set up a technical subcommittee to work out a template for the adjustment of salaries of public service employees in line with the minimum wage law.
The controversy was resolved between both parties on October 18, following which FEC approved the implementation.
The Labour Minister, Dr Chris Ngige, announced details of the agreement to journalists.
“For COMESS wage structure, Grade Level 7 gets 23 per cent, Salary Grade Level 8 gets 20 per cent, Salary Grade Level 9 gets 19 per cent, Salary Grade Level 10 -14 gets 16 per cent while Salary Grade Level 15-17 gets 14 per cent,” he said.
“For those on the second category of wages structure, CONHES, CONRRISE, CONTISS etc, Level 7 gets 22.2 per cent, Level 8-14 gets 16 per cent, Level 15-17 gets 10.5 per cent,” he added.
Speaking on behalf of the union, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress after reaching the agreement, Ayuba Wabba, said both parties participated in the process and made input.
“We want our workers to be committed and increase productivity. The guideline will be transmitted to all state councils and they will work in harmony as well as TUC and NLC will work together,” he said.
The Federal Government and labour on October 18 announced an agreement on the implementation of the new wage.
The agreement over consequential adjustments averted a strike that labour had threatened to call should government further delay the take-off of the new minimum wage.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting, last Wednesday, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo approved the agreement and set dates for the take-off of the new wage and payment of the arrears.
FEC directed that the payment of the new salary structure should take effect from April 18 and the arrears cleared by December 31.