When it seemed that the labour unions in Oyo state would down tool over the New Minimum Wage imbroiglo, the reverse is the case as labour has consented to the state government’s decision to allow the committee currently working on it to complete its assignment as BAYO AGBOOLA reports.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), last weekend, left no one in doubt about its readiness to ensure timely implementation of the newly- approved N70,000 as the minimum wage for civil servants at the federal and states levels in and across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Although, most of the states of the federation have promised to be implementing the new minimum wage for their workers with some even promising to pay more at the commencement of the implementation in their individual states, but the NLC National Executive Council (NEC) apparently smelling foul play by some states to tactically prolonged the new minimum wage implementation beyond 2024, rose from its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Kano on November 27, 2024 and directed its members in 14 states, namely Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Oyo, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to embark on strike from Monday, December 2, 2024.
NLC in a statement by its general secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja emphasized that, “This decision followed the resolutions by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the NLC in Port Harcourt on November 8 which was reaffirmed by the Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Kano on November 27, 2024 and expressed the union’s disappointment over the non-compliance by the affected states.
NLC while handling down the strike directive to the 14 states and the FCT warned that, “Failure to commence implementation by the end of November 2024 leaves us no option but to enforce industrial action as directed by NEC and CWC. We would hold state leadership accountable for this breach and this directive must be implemented immediately, as non-compliance would attract dire consequences and the full weight of the union would be brought to bear on erring states.”
Oyo as an exception
Few hours after the NLC National Secretariat strike directive to 14 states including Oyo, the Oyo State Council of the union came up with a statement that the state council would not be joining in the December 2 strike for now considering what it called the on-going talks between the union leaders on the implementation of the New Minimum Wage in the state in accordance with the N80,000 already pronounced for the entire workforce in the state by Gov Seyi Makinde.
“The attention of the council had been drawn to a news circulating about Oyo state NLC declaring strike commencing from Monday 2nd December 2024. The SEC and SAC of the NLC Oyo State Council met on Thursday 28th November, 2024 and discussed extensively on the New Minimum Wage implementation in Oyo state and later concluded that all forms of industrial actions be put on hold since the committee set up by the government is already having a robust discussion on a favourable consequential adjustment in accordance with the pronounced #80,000 and acceptable salary table for the entire workforce in the state.”
Oyo state NLC stressed, “The above position had been duly communicated to the national leadership of the NLC who had equally seen the level of commitment and progress made towards the actualisation of the new wage in the state and as well consented to it.
“In view of this, the Oyo State Council of NLC would not be joining the strike for now so as to give room for the committee on consequential adjustment to get the table completed with needed endorsement for implementation within the next couple of days.
“To this end, we wish to call on the entire workers of Oyo state to remain calm while the arrangement for a robust minimum wage table for Oyo state is concluded by the joint committee of the state government and labour movement.”
State goverment clarified situation
The state government in a statement on Saturday amidst the situation declared that there would be no strike in the state on Monday, December 2 as directed by the Nigeria Labour Union National Secretariat going by the on-going negotiations between the state government and the leadership of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) are at an advanced stage and on the verge of implementation.
The state commissioner for information Prince Dotun Oyelade maintained that besides, both parties have unfettered confidence in the sincerity of the negotiations and in the track record of the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration in the state to fulfil its promises, adding that Gov Makinde did not negotiate with the Labour leaders before he announced a generous ₦80,000 minimum wage which will be implemented as soon as the consequential adjustment negotiations are concluded.
“The present administration in Oyo state has not only been worker-friendly with its prompt payment of salaries and pensions on the 25th of every month, but has also expanded the workforce with large-scale record recruitment exercises across board.”
Workers in the state are already looking forward to the prompt payment of the December salaries and the 13th month bonus, Prince Oyelade said this has always been the situation since the inception of the Seyi Makinde administration in 2019.
The journey to the implementation of new minimum wage in Oyo started November 6 this year when Gov Makinde approved a new minimum wage of N80,000 for state workers as confirmed in a statement by the state commissioner for information and orientation, Prince Oyelade.
Oyelade in the statement said the approval followed recommendations from a technical committee comprising government and labour representatives tasked with implementing the revised wage structure and that the new salary scale would take effect once the committee completes the consequential adjustment process saying, “This new scale would be implemented as soon as the consequential adjustments process is completed by the committee which comprises government and labour top officials.
Prince Oyelade maintained that only last month, a federal government agency, the National Bureau of Statistics, in its latest employment statistics published for 2024, rated Oyo state as the most worker-friendly state in the whole of Southern Nigeria, owing to a significant decline in the state unemployment rate, following a series of high-pitched employment of workers into various sectors of the state adding, ” Oyo state pays its workers salaries on the 25th of every month since Governor Makinde came into office in 2019.”
As stated by the Oyo state NLC that all forms of industrial actions be put on hold since the committee set up by the government is already having a robust discussion on a favourable consequential adjustment in accordance with the pronounced N80,000 and acceptable salary table for the entire workforce in the state, all eyes are now on the outcome of the discussion between the state government and the labour leaders on the N80,000 minimum wage which would definitely determine what becomes of the effectiveness of the planned strike holding or not.
