By John Bassey, Gusau
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Zamfara State have rejected the new minimum wage payment template of the Zamfara State Government.
The unions also threatened industrial action within two weeks if the issues raised are not resolved amicably.
The chairman of the NLC Zamfara State chapter, Comrade Sani Haliru, while addressing journalists alongside his TUC counterpart, maintained that the template used in implementing the payment of the minimum wage is not the one agreed upon by the committee set up by the state governor in the last four months.
According to the unions, “We observe that there are people in the Executive Government trying to sabotage the good efforts and goodwill of Governor Lawal to the people of Zamfara State. We demand an investigation into the wrong template used in implementing the new minimum wage in the state.”
The chairman demanded immediate attention and resolution of the unexpected problem staged by the state government on the labour masses.
He also described the action as a breach of trust between the government and the people of the state.
He recalled that the N70,000 minimum wage template of the Federal Government was adequately deliberated upon by the committee and submitted to the Executive Council.
“The council, having considered the decision of the committee, decided to commence the implementation in March ending.
“We all trusted in the agenda of the executive government but to our disappointment, what we are seeing now is a total deviation from the agreement the committee had with the state government.
“Many complain of removal from payroll, some decrease of salary, and so on. All these are done to tarnish the image of the Governor and the labour leaders,” the union leaders said.
Part of the conditions raised included that the agreed N70,000 minimum wage template must be brought out and implemented honourably, and people who were removed from the payroll should be reinstated.
“We want the State Government to attend to this properly. If not, after a period of two weeks and these are not addressed accurately, industrial action is inevitable.”
Also speaking, the TUC Chairman, Comrade Saidu Mudi, recalled that Governor Lawal had promised to ensure proper implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage when the issue earlier came up.
“But Zamfara remains the only state that has not commenced implementation till January 2025.
“We, the organized labour and the entire workforce of Zamfara State, are very disappointed at the recent poor implementation of the minimum wage by the state government,” he said.