Katsina, Cross River, Zamfara In Last-Minute Moves To Avert NLC Strike Over Minimum Wage

States yet to implement the ₦70,000 minimum wage for workers are making frantic efforts to prevent the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) from embarking on a nationwide strike slated for Monday, December 1.

According to Punch, Katsina, Cross River, and Zamfara are the only states left to approve the wage increase after Imo State joined the list of compliant states on Tuesday.

This development means that 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have now complied with the 2024 National Minimum Wage Act, which set ₦70,000 as the starting point for workers’ salaries.

Several states have gone beyond the mandated minimum, with Lagos and Rivers offering the highest pay at ₦85,000. Lagos State also announced plans to increase its workers’ wages to ₦100,000 by the first quarter of 2025, signalling a robust commitment to workers’ welfare.

Workers in Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Oyo and Niger will earn ₦80,000, while Delta and Ogun states approved ₦77,000.

Ebonyi, Osun, Benue, and Kebbi states approved ₦75,000; Ondo, ₦73,000; Kogi and Kaduna, ₦72,000; Kano and Gombe, ₦71,000.

Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Jigawa, Borno, Edo, Kwara, Nasarawa, Taraba, Ekiti, Bauchi, Yobe, Imo and Plateau states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, all settled for ₦70,000.

But despite the NLC’s warnings, trio Katsina, Zamfara and Cross River have yet to implement the new wage, which could lead to a shutdown of activities in the affected states from Monday.

On Monday, labour unions in Cross River, who are demanding a new wage of ₦70,000 from the state government, directed state civil servants to embark on a two-day warning strike over the non-implementation of the new minimum wage.

The Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress signed the warning strike.

This followed a staged walkout from a meeting held on November 18 with state government officials, who formed members of the wage implementation committee at the office of the state’s Head of Service, Innocent Eteng, in Calabar, the state capital.

According to the labour leaders, last week, when the committee sat for the first time, the meeting ended in a stalemate when they perceived delayed tactics by the government to postpone the meeting to January.

The state’s civil servants said they were utterly disappointed when Governor Bassey Otu announced a new minimum wage of ₦40,000 on May 1, during the International Workers Day celebration at the U.J Essueine Stadium in Calabar.

Otu said that due to the state’s lean resources, caused by the statutory federal allocation aggravated by the unfavourable state Gross Domestic Product, the new minimum wage of ₦40,000 would align with realities rather than sentiments.

While giving instances of Edo, Lagos, Rivers and other governors, the workers said they were of high hope before the unexpected announcement of ₦40,000.

The strike action, which was signed by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, was set to commence from November 24 midnight to 26, 2024.

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