Minimum Wage: Payment Commences September- Labour Chief

The Chairman of the Ekiti State Chapter of the NLC, Mr Kolapo Olatunde, announced on Monday that the Federal Government would commence payment of the long-awaited new wage from next month.

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Olatunde made the disclosure in an interview with the Labour Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ado-Ekiti on Monday.

“I speak to you as the right source that nothing will stop the implementation of the N30, 000 minimum wage next month.

“Government will pay the new minimum wage in the first week of September.

“After the National Executive Council meeting of the NLC in Kano, we have streamlined everything that can cause any further delay of the payment.

“Now, we are waiting for the outcome,’’ Olatunde stated.

He said that the issue of consequential adjustment raised by labour, to properly harmonise payment of the new wage had delayed the payment.

The labour chief said the payment could start from early week of September when he was asked to state the exact date workers should expect the payment.

He noted that the reappointed Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, had taken it as his priority to ensure that the minimum wage issue was finally resolved.

Organised labour and the Federal Government have been locked in endless bickering on the modalities for the payment of the new minimum wage which was approved by the government earlier this year.

On April 18, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Minimum Wage Bill into law, to bring relief to Nigerian workers but payment of the wage has remained a problem.

Labour had asked for consequential adjustment but the government argued that it had already made budgetary provision for an adjustment of N10, 000 across the board for those already earning above N30, 000 per month.

The development resulted in a logjam on the issue, delaying the payment of the wage since April.

Review of the minimum wage in Nigeria was effected last eight years ago, leaving civil servants at the receiving end of economic hardships.

Public sector workers in oil-bearing Nigeria receive meagre salaries, while political office receives some of the biggest paycheques in the world, according to analysts.