‘Joint unions will shut down state that fails to pay minimum wage’

Mr Christopher Arapasopo, Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Osun Chapter, says joint labour unions have agreed to enforce the new N70,000 minimum wage in all the states and any state that fails to pay will be shut down.

Arapasopo, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Osogbo, said the unions agreed on the new minimum wage as a sacrifice to prevent a hike in fuel pump prices.

He said that during its NEC meeting, all members agreed that they would enforce the minimum wage in all the states and that any state that failed to pay would be shut down.

“The governors would never say they were not there when it was agreed. In fact, they were the ones agitating for N70,000 as the minimum wage.

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“We, as labour, suggested N250,000 and they brought it down to N62,000 before shifting ground to N70,000, and we accepted it. we have sacrificed a lot of things.

“So, for any government or governor that fails to pay, we will shut that state down. It is a must for them to pay. It is a no-go area. We are not negotiating that”, Osun NLC chair said.

According to him, “We had our NEC meeting which we just concluded some hours ago, where all the state representatives adopted the amount that was announced, based on some facts.

“The President said if we insisted on our demand of N250,000, he would have to increase the fuel price.

”But as good citizens of Nigeria, we believe the demand should not be only to the benefit of a particular sector alone.

“As workers, we should be able to think about other Nigerians and not ourselves alone.

“So, we made the sacrifice to accept the N70,000 to avoid the price of fuel going up,” he said.

Arapasopo said If the union had insisted on the N250,000 minimum wage, Nigerians and workers would suffer the increment in fuel pump prices and inflation would increase.

He said the N70,000 accepted by labour was still fair as it would be the least salary paid to workers in the lowest cadre.

Arapasopo added that consequential adjustments and benefits attached to the levels would even jack up the wage when it was implemented.

He said the Osun chapter of the union would meet with the state government to discuss some allowances for workers, “but the minimum wage stands non-negotiable”. (NAN)