N35,000 wage award to continue till minimum wage – NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said on Monday the N35,000 wage award agreement with the Federal Government would continue until a new minimum wage was determined.

The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, stated this in a chat with journalists in Abuja.

President Bola Tinubu on October 1, 2023 approved N35,000 as the provisional wage increment for all treasury-paid workers for six months.

This was part of an agreement reached with the organised labour to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.

However, the federal government had only paid two months of the wage award that commenced in September 2023.

Ajaero said the payment would be in place before the commencement of the national minimum wage.

He said: “We did not sign a six-month wage award with the Federal Government, 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 to 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 on that, it is not just the wage award, the entire agreement we had with them, they have not conceded to it.”

The NLC president listed other issues that were yet to be implemented by the federal government to include the Port Harcourt refineries and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses, among others.

He assured workers that the issues were being looked into holistically.

Ajaero added: “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 from.

“We are not starting the year from 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 tabs on 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 these issues seriously.”

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