Minimum wage: Akwa Ibom govt reaches agreement with labour

An agreement has been reached between the Akwa Ibom state government and organised labour on payment of minimum wage.

Victor Inoka, commissioner for labour and manpower planning, disclosed this during an interview with reporters.

According to him, “the agreement was that we pay exactly the federal government negotiated and approved percentages increase and the consequential adjustments therein”.

The federal government and organised labour had both agreed on 66.66% increase for workers between level 01 and 06, 23.2% increase for workers on 07, 20% increase for level 08 workers and 19% increase for level 09 workers.

They also agreed that for level 10-14 workers, there’ll be a 16% salary increase, while for those on level 15 to 17, there’ll be a 14%, on the consolidated public service salary structure.

This agreement was signed between federal government and organised labour on Thursday, October 17, 2019, to effect the new N30,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

The labour commissioner revealed that as a fallout of the recent agreement an Akwa Ibom worker from the lowest cadre will go home with salary above national minimum wage.

“What people don’t realise is that we were not really paying N18, 000 before. Akwa Ibom was paying more than N18, 000. We were paying up to N19, 000 when N18, 000 was the national minimum wage,” he said.

“The implication is that once we adopted the new minimum wage on top of the salary that was on ground the minimum wage earner in Akwa Ibom State will earn above the national minimum wage.

“Government has exceeded expectation. Unlike most states, the governor accepted to pay worker one month arrears. Representatives of Labour, NLC & TUC, all have agreed to this and we have signed an agreement.”

He said if there is any disparity in salary of health workers in the state with that of their colleagues in other core oil producing state, such would be looked into as appropriate.

“The percentages signed by federal government have all been adopted, but there is also an understanding that whatever peculiar issues were there will need further discussions to see how that can be ameliorated,” he said.

The commissioner further revealed that both parties have agreed on the issue of arrears of minimum wage.