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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The N35,000 salary award agreement the Nigeria Labour Congress had with the federal government would last until a new minimum wage is established, the labour union said on Monday.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the provisional salary package would lessen the impact of the elimination of fuel subsidies.
President Bola Tinubu, on October 1, 2023, approved N35,000 as the provisional wage increment for all treasury-paid workers for six months.
However, the federal government has only paid two months of the wage award that commenced in September 2023.
Mr Ajaero, while speaking against the backdrop of the wage award payment, said the payment would run for only six months before the commencement of the national minimum wage.
He said the organised labour did not sign a six-month wage award with the federal government, adding, “we signed a wage award that will be in existence until the new minimum wage is determined.
“We are in the process of collating the compliance of the federal government on the payment of the wage award, and we have even had a conversation with the leadership of the Trade Union Congress(TUC) on this.
“We have asked our affiliates to collate the level of compliance on this and we are still waiting for their correspondents.
“Even last week, during a courtesy call, I raised the issue with the Minister of Labour and Employment that it is not just the wage award, the entire agreement we had with them, they have not conceded to it,” he said.
Mr Ajaero noted that other issues yet to be implemented by the federal government include the Port Harcourt refineries becoming operational, providing CNG buses, and wage awards.
He, however, assured workers that the issues were being looked into holistically.
“I have asked the federal government to go through all the agreements they have entered with us because that is where we are starting the year.
“We are not starting the year with even minimum wage; we have to look at the sanity and compliance to the agreement already entered with the government.
“So far, it has not been rosy; there seems to be nobody that is keeping up with the agreement and at a time like this, we need to get it right at the beginning of the year, so we are working on this issue seriously,” he said.
