Chidi Samuel|
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged workers across the country to vote out any governor or political party that fails to pay the minimum wage.
In a statement on Thursday by NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, organised labour also asked workers not be intimidated by threat from the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) to sack workers in order to be able to pay the new national minimum wage.
Organised labour was responding to position of the NGF that it was impossible to implement the N30,000 minimum wage without downsizing the size of workers.
According to Wabba, Nigerians workers will vote out any governor who refuses to implement as the new minimum wage as the threat to sack workers is not new to the union.
The statement read, “The consequences of workers retrenchment are too grievous for any political office holder truly elected by the people to contemplate.”
“Few political office holders are bent on enslaving Nigerian workers with peanuts mislabeled as salaries.
“We urge such elected public officials to subject their humongous salaries and allowances, reputed to be among the highest in the world to public perusal pro rata with the minimum wage they want to force down the throats of Nigerian workers.
“To the oppressors, we have only one answer for you, we will never sleep on our rights.
“We hereby reiterate our directive to Nigerian workers to vote out any politician or political party that refuses to pay the new national minimum wage of N30, 000.
“We shall continue to consolidate our efforts to strengthen already existing platforms and structures to give teeth to our resolve to vote out anti-labour.
“It would interest Nigerians to know that the new national minimum wage of N30,000 was a product of intense and robust negotiations at the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee that lasted for one year.