‘Allow due process’ — NLC urges Akwa Ibom civil servants on minimum wage

• In 2019, Former President Muhammadu Buhari signed a minimum wage of N30,000 into law.
• On July 29, President Bola Tinubu enacted the N70,000 new National Minimum Wage Act. 

Mr Sunny James, the Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress in Akwa Ibom, has asked civil servants in the state to shelve strike plans following the delay in minimum wage implementation.

In an interview with journalists in Uyo on Tuesday, Janmes said it was too early to accuse the state government of failure to implement the new wage regime.

He said that the governor Eno-led administration had yet to receive the implementation template from the National Salary and Wages Commission.

“Our workers should know that it doesn’t work that way. There must be a salary table drawn by the National Salary and Wages Commission before states can commence implementation.

“I urge them to stop such a plan immediately if there is any. Let’s allow due process to be followed,” he said.

It would be recalled that some civil servants in the state are expressing worries over the delay in the implementation of the recently approved N70,000 minimum wage.

It was gathered that in Idongesit Nkanga State Secretariat Complex in Uyo, civil servants were seen in groups discussing the delay in minimum wage implementation.

Some of the workers who spoke to newsmen said they would mobilise for an industrial action to quicken the government to implement the new pay structure.

One of them, Mr Samson Asuquo, said that workers were getting frustrated by the delay and that the state government had remained silent over the matter.

“The government has not made any pronouncement on the matter. They don’t seem to be worried over the plight of civil servants,” NAN quotes Asuquo as saying.

Another civil servant, Mr Israel Umoh, expressed concerns that even non-oil producing states had announced readiness to pay the new minimum wage to their workers.

“So why shouldn’t Akwa Ibom, one of the states with the highest allocation not make any move to implement the new wage structure?

“It is even more painful that the labour union in the state is not making any move to facilitate the payment. Workers are suffering,” he said.

NAN reports that during labour unions’ discussion with the Federal Government, Eno announced that his administration would pay whatever is agreed as the new minimum wage.