State councils where the new minimum wage of N70,000 is not being completely implemented have been instructed by the Nigeria Labour Congress, or NLC, to start an indefinite strike on December 1, 2024.
This occurred as the NLC bemoaned the policies’ impoverishment of Nigerians and urged the Federal Government to examine all alleged anti-people practices.
NLC in a communiqué by its President, Joe Ajaero at the end of its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting in Port Harcourt Rivers State, also warned that it would not accept a situation where Rivers State workers were made victims of the ongoing political crisis in the state by withholding fund meant for payment of workers’ salaries and other benefits.
The communiqué read: “The NEC notes with deep frustration the persistent delay and outright refusal by some state governments to implement the 2024 National Minimum Wage Act. This betrayal by certain governors and government officials across the country flies in the face of both legality and morality, as workers continue to be denied their rightful wages amidst rising economic hardship. It is a blatant disregard for the law and the lives of millions of Nigerian workers, who are being exploited by the very leaders sworn to protect them.
“The NEC, therefore, resolves to set up a National Minimum Wage Implementation Committee that will among others commence a nationwide assessment, mobilization and sensitization campaign, educating workers and citizens on the need to resist this assault on their dignity and rights.
“Furthermore, the NLC shall initiate a series of industrial actions in all non-compliant states and shall not relent until the minimum wage is fully implemented across Nigeria. To this end, all state Councils where the National Minimum Wage has not been fully implemented by the last day of November, 2024 have been directed to proceed on strike beginning from December 1, 2024. Nigerian workers demand justice, and justice they shall have.”
