The organised labour in Ondo state says it will not sign any new wage agreement that can impoverish or lead to the retrenchment of its members.
Labour’s clarification is coming as workers in the state await the implementation of the #30,000 minimum wage.
The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Sunday Adeleye-Oluwole made the clarification at a news conference in Akure.
He said negotiations over the new minimum wage which was earlier suspended, had resumed and it was now 85% concluded.
Adeleye assured workers that the process may be concluded before the end of this week, saying the delay in minimum wage approval and implementation in Ondo State was caused by the insistence of the organized labour led by JNC, NLC and TUC to get better package for the workers and pensioners.
The NLC Chairman, noted that the new salary tables on minimum wage presented by the state government were being critically studied to ensure that agreed new salaries does not lead to irregular payment, mass retrenchment and it would be sustainable.
Adeleye said “the negotiation is not led by Nigeria Labour Congress but is led by the Joint Negotiating Council as prescribed by the National Headquarters NLC and TUC, we are just supporting the JNC and that was what we had been doing and I want to say that in the last two months, the JNC in its wisdom setup negotiation committee and ever since then we have met more than seven times.
“So JNC has a final say concerning this minimum wage. But as at now, base on what happened today (Tuesday) we have gotten to 85% completion. Also, pensioners are been carry along because we believe that all of us we become pensioners.
“From what I have been following I can say that before this week runs out we should be able to come out with specific table and we are working on five different tables for Judiciary, Parliament, Media workers, For the call services, For our counterpart in Health sector and the services has their own peculiar allowances. So we are working now on five structure including pensioners making it six.
“In the spirit of negotiation, what we really need is to know the data, how much is coming from Ondo state, which we have got and we also look at the present salary wage bill.”
“As labour leaders, we are not elected to sign what will cause our workers to be retrenched. Last month, office of the Accountant General was so frustrated that he called us and showed to us (all labour leaders) how they got money to pay November (2019) salary and even at the minimum wage (negotiation) table it was stated to everyone of us”.
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