NLC NATIONWIDE STRIKE LOOMS OVER MINIMUM WAGE

NLC NATIONWIDE STRIKE LOOMS OVER MINIMUM WAGE

·         Three-day warning strike to begin on Wednesday

·         Why we can’t pay, by Obi

WORKERS will begin a three-day warning strike next Wednesday.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday issued the strike notice against the Federal, states and local governments as well as private employers for non-implementation of the N18,000 National Minimum Wage.

NLC President Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, at a news conference in Abuja, said should the governments, remain adamant after the warning strike, the NLC would announce an indefinite strike. 
He said: “The National Executive Council (NEC) of the NLC has painfully observed that over three months since the New National Minimum Wage became law, no government, whether Federal, state, or local government, has implemented it. Also, no private sector employer has paid the new wage.”  

He, however, noted that due to the non-implementation, “the Labour Movement calls a three-day general strike across the country with effect from Wednesday 20th July to Friday July 22, 2011”.

Omar said: “The attempt by the Federal Government to make the New National Minimum Wage implementation applicable only to workers on Grade Level 01 to 06 in the Federal Service is not acceptable.”

According to him, the National Minimum Wage affects all workers, irrespective of sector or grade level.

He added that the NLC rejected both the payment table and the implementation circular that the Federal Government presented to it.
The NLC, said Omar, expected that the Federal Government would set a good example as a good employer to pay the minimum base of N18,000.
He said: “This will be in line with the Labour-Federal Government understanding in year 2000 that the Federal Government, Lagos, and oil producing states would pay higher than the minimum wage.
This was the reason that the Federal Government, Lagos and oil producing states paid a minimum wage of N7,500, which was higher than the legislated minimum wage of N5,500.”
On the strike, Omar said: “Colleagues and gentlemen of the press, we are compelled to take this decision because we have come to the simple conclusion that governments at all levels in this country are not willing and are not ready to pay the new national minimum wage even as the President has put it into law by signing the Bill.
“We are, therefore, left with no other option than to commence a strike action that will begin from July 20 to July 22 in the first instance. And that is just a warning strike and failure to do anything about the full implementation of this minimum wage, Nigerian workers will be ready to embark on an indefinite strike to be announced at a later date.”

Omar said: “Given the non-implementation of the Minimum Wage by the Federal, states, and local governments, as well as the private sector, the Labour Movement is left with no alternative than to defend the Minimum Wage Law, interest of working people and the fundamental human right of the Nigerian populace to live above poverty line.”

“Although many state governments have promised to pay, there is no negotiated payment table on which the Minimum Wage is based. Unfortunately, governors are allowing their colleagues to hold them to ransom on the implementation of the New National Minimum Wage,” he said.

Anambra State Governor Peter Obi said if he pays the minimum wage, there will be nothing left for development.
The Ondo State government urged its workers to shelve the strike planned to commence today, saying it will pay the new wage.