Workers to embark on strike in states yet to implement new minimum wage

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has directed workers to embark on an indefinite strike in states where the new minimum wage is yet to be implemented. 

On July 29 2024, President Bola Tinubu signed the minimum wage bill into law.

The legislation increased the country’s minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000.

In a communique after a meeting of the union’s national executive council (NEC), the NLC said it notes with “deep frustration” the refusal by some state governments to implement the minimum wage.

NLC said non-implementation of the wage is a blatant disregard for the law and the lives of millions of Nigerian workers.

“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,” the communique reads.

“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.”

The NLC said it would initiate a series of industrial actions in all non-compliant states 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 the 1st day of December, 2024,” the statement reads.

“Nigerian workers demand justice, and justice they shall have.”

The NLC also decried the “accelerating economic hardship inflicted upon Nigerian citizens”, adding that citizens are being driven into destitution, forced to choose daily between feeding their families and seeking healthcare.

“Access to energy has become a mirage while workers become increasingly poorer even as they work longer hours to meet their other basic needs. As a result, nutritional diseases like Kwashiorkor and Marasmus have resurfaced in Nigeria,” it said.

“The NLC demands immediate, concrete interventions from the Federal Government, not token measures, to relieve this suffering.

“We call for the implementation of comprehensive social protection policies that shield Nigerians from poverty, provide affordable healthcare, and ensure a wage that reflects the true cost of living.

“To this end, we call for a wage review across the nation including a review of all the policies that have rather emasculated Nigerian people.”