James Ojo, Abuja, Linus Oota, Lafia and Gyang Bere, Jos

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned three states yet to make any concrete moves to open discussion on the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage of N30,000.

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba issued the warning, yesterday, when he appeared on a national television.

The affected states are Kogi, Cross River and Taraba which he said should be ready for a showdown with the labour movement.

He announced that 23 states have taken considerable steps to resolve the issues of consequential adjustment of the minimum wage through negotiation with their respective labour leaders.

He commended 10 states that had started paying the minimum wage with its consequential adjustment, insisting that the law, which fixed the minimum wage must be respected by all the state governments.

Wabba said it was gratifying that the Federal Government had started paying the arrears of the new wage from April last year when the law was enacted.

He added that the leadership of labour decided to monitor developments at state levels to avoid situations whereby workers will be offered peanuts.

The NLC president stated that it was the reason the state chapters were encouraged to go into negotiations where facts on revenue profile of the state would be laid on the table for the tripartite committee to deliberate on and arrive at a conclusion.

Wabba said as at yesterday, no state had come to say it could not pay the minimum wage.

He said that the leadership of the two trade unions, the NLC and TUC (Trade Union Congress) would be meeting with the joint-negotiation team to review development in all the states this week.

But organised  labour in Nasarawa State, yesterday, threatened to boycott the inauguration of the committee set up to negotiate  the new minimum wage, unless  arrears of promotion, salaries and pension owed workers were cleared.

Daily Sun learnt that the government suspended the inauguration of the committee.

Nasarawa NLC Chairman, Yusuf Sarki Iya, told Daily Sun that government was still negotiating the issue of minimum wage with workers.

He said labour in the state had made it clear that if the backlog of arrears were not cleared, it would not honor invitations to discuss the minimum wage with government.

“We were invited for the inauguration of the minimum wage committee only to be told by the Head of Service that the inauguration has been put on hold. Our concern is the implementation of the pending promotion, salary arrears and pension before  discussing  the minimum wage

“We have been waiting patiently for the government, the NLC will not see industrial action as an  option, but will not hesitate to engage the government when it becomes imperative,” Iya said.

Nasarawa Head of service, Nicholas  Aboki, denied knowledge of the wage committee’s inauguration. He said he was surprised when labour stormed his office for the ceremony.

However, Plateau government said significant progress has been made in its negotiations with labour unions.

Commissioner of Information and Communication, Mr. Dan Manjang, described the current stage of negotiations as peaceful and encouraging.

“We first began the process by setting up a committee led by Mr. Luka Fwangyil, a former Head of Service, to negotiate with labour on the consequential adjustments as directed by the Federal Government based on the peculiarity, sustainability and capacity of each state. Today, I will be proud to tell you that that a singular step we took is paying, as things are going smoothly towards agreeing on what to pay our most cherished workers. I want to put the record straight to the citizens of Plateau that this government is committed to the welfare of its workers and will do all it could to achieve that at all costs.”

He appealed to workers and the unions to “remain calm while negotiations are ongoing, pending the recommendation of same.”

He said that any attempt to distract the government from discharging its constitutional responsibilities to the people of the state would fail.