As the negotiation meeting between the Federal Government and the organised labour on the Consequential Adjustment on the new minimum wage ended in a deadlock Wednesday night, some state governments in the country may be perfecting plans to short change their workers.
Apart from Ekiti and Kaduna State governments that have started paying their workers from Grade levels 01-06, other states are yet to pay or agree on the template for payment.
Five months ago, for example, Akwa Ibom State government inaugurated a 14-member committee to work out modalities for the implementation of N30,000 new national minimum wage for workers in the public service of the state and gave the committee one month to submit its report.
Before now, the federal government had inaugurated a committee for the implementation of the new national minimum wage to workers in its employ on Tuesday, May 14, after President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the bill into law on April 18.
The immediate past Akwa Ibom State Head of Civil Service, Mrs Ekerebong Akpan, who inaugurated the committee in her office on May 16, said the new minimum wage would be paid as soon as the necessary documentation is finalised and submitted to the government for implementation.
According to her, the state was the first state that constituted the Implementation Committee as soon as the Bill was assented to by President Buhari and assured that the state governor, Mr Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, in his usual favourable disposition to workers welfare, is set to implement the new salary structure in the state.
The committee had Mrs. Ekerebong Akpan which may be replaced by Effiong Essien, the Head of Civil Service, as its chairman. The members include Dr (Mrs) Comfort Archibong, permanent secretary, Office of the Head of Civil Service; Mrs. Emette Imuk, permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance and Dr. (Mrs) Valerie Obot, permanent secretary, Ministry of Economic Development, Labour and Manpower Development and Dr. Otuekong Ukut, permanent secretary, Local Government Service Commission.
Others were Barr Uduak John Eyo-nsa, solicitor general and permanent secretary, Ministry of Justice; Uwem Andrew Essien, accountant general; Mr. Otu E. Asuquo, head of Budget; Mrs. Emem Umoh, permanent secretary, Department of Establishments and Comrade Unyime Usoro, special adviser, Labour, representing the state government.
Those representing labour were NLC chairperson, TUC chairman; Comrade Anestina Iweh, NULGE president and Comrade Tina Essien, the chairman, Joint Public Service Negotiating Council.
In the end, Comrade Sunny James, the chairperson of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Comrade Akamba Awah, his Trade Union Congress, TUC, counterpart, thanked the state government for commencing an action to implement the new minimum wage.
Speaking with journalists in Uyo on Tuesday, Comrade James, the NLC Chairperson said he was optimistic that Udom Emmanuel administration would pay the new national minimum wage to workers in the state.
On his part, Mr. Charles Udoh, the state Commissioner of Information, said the state Government is ready to pay the minimum wage of N30,000 to workers in its employ.
Speaking on Tuesday on Planet 101.1FM live Radio Programme – Akwa Ibom Mandate, Udoh noted that Akwa Ibom State has no issues with the ongoing face-off between the Federal Government, FG and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on the non-implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage.
He said if there were issues with inability to pay the minimum wage, then it must be by those states in the same political divide with the government at the centre, which at the moment are grappling with backlog of unpaid salary arrears for upwards of 5 to 7 months, pledging the readiness of the state government to pay as soon as the Federal government puts in place all necessary procedures.
However, in an exclusive interview with Straightnews in Uyo on Wednesday, James said “We are waiting for the Federal Government to release its table. Based on this, we will be able to negotiate with the state government. I do not want us to shoot ourselves on the foot. If we negotiate now and agree on what should be paid to the workers, yet the federal Government comes up with a better deal, it will be difficult for us to go back to the negotiating table.
Answering a question on why Ekiti and Kaduna states are paying, yet other states are not paying, he said that they may not be paying the correct new national minimum wage because the Federal Government is yet to approve various sums for the different grade levels of workers even at the Federal level.
Investigation by Straightnews showed that Akwa Ibom government is not paying the N18,000 national minimum wage to its workers across the board except workers on grade levels 01-06 are enjoying.
Yet, some workers in the public service who spoke anonymously to the online newspaper wished the governor would be sincere and kind enough to pay the new national minimum wage to them to be able to cushion the effects of spiraling inflation in the country.
Meanwhile, the negotiation meeting between the Federal Government and the organised labour on the Consequential Adjustment on the new minimum wage ended on a deadlock Wednesday night but adjourned to Thursday.
Already, both the Federal Government and the organised have adjusted their positions on the Consequential Adjustment.
While the federal government has offered to make consequential movement of workers from Grade Level 7-14 to 17 percent from its initial 11 percent and 12 percent for Grade Level 15-17 from 6.5 percent, the organized labour also shifted its position of 29 percent for consequential movement of GL-7-14 to 25 percent and 20 percent for GL15-17 from 25 percent.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige at the end of the meeting said that discussion will continue today as a result of exigency of the time.
Also speaking, Comrade Amechi Asugwuni, the Deputy President of NLC, said “Negotiation is still ongoing even though we actually thought negotiations will be concluded today but we can’t predict the negotiations, therefore, adjournment became necessary.
“To the best of our knowledge, the struggle will still continue. Tomorrow (today), we will meet by 2 pm and that meeting will also determine fate. I pray we will close that meeting positively.
“So far, commitment has been shown but we believe that the areas that are still in the contest are critical. Therefore, we want the government to see how they can shift ground positively in order to mitigate the agitation ahead.” Insurance sector stakeholders raise alarm over disruptive tech
The Head of Service, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Essan said, “We’ve had very fruitful deliberations so far. The labour side has discovered that there is just one side of the welfare of workers and both sides made a lot of concessions.
“But we discovered that there are some gray areas that need to be ironed out. Some documents and information are being sorted out which we are providing and by Grace of God tomorrow discussions will continue and we believe that we will be able to get everything resolved.”
