Minimum Wage: FG threatens to sue errant state governments
Story by Uthman Salami, Tobiloba Adetunji
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, has threatened to sue state governments that failed to pay its workers N30,000 minimum wage passed into the law by the Federal Government.
Ngige revealed this when he featured on Channels Sunday politics on Sunday.
President Muhammadu Buhari had signed into law the national minimum wage bill which prescribed a national minimum wage of N30,000 for workers after it had been passed by the National Assembly.
Since then, various states government in the federation have failed to comply with the minimum wage law.
Last year, report revealed that about 11 state governments have not fully complied with the minimum wage law, with three states and FCT were making partial payment.
Some of the states that have failed to comply are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Nasarawa, Anambra, Benue, Ekiti, Kogi, Plateau, Imo, Nasarawa, Osun and Taraba. Others are Bauchi, Oyo, Yobe and Kebbi.
The minister disclosed that he was already consulting with ministry justice and the Attorney General of the federation to work on modalities to sue whoever runs default of the minimum wage law.
According to him, “I am negotiating with the federal Attorney General of the Federation. The laws permit me to take any employer to court.”
He declared that, “If the Governors are enjoying immunity, I can decide to start from the secretary to government, head of service, go down to the state executive council and take everyone to court.
“The minimum wage law is applicable to all states of the Federation as stated under section 2.
He added that, “Section 3 specifically says that N30,000 minimum wage shall be paid. It does not give room for picking and choosing. The state government that are not paying the minimum wage are breaching the law of the land.”
The minister also stressed that some of the state governments do not understand that the minimum wage is a non-negotiable payment.
According to him, “It is different from collective bargaining agreement.”
He emphasised that “it is a national law that the stipulated minimum must be paid to the lowest-ranked employee in every establishment. State governments are employers.”
He added that the law does not exempt the private sector including banks and other private employers. Any state government and employers that negotiate the minimum wage with their various Unions are running foul of the law.
While responding to the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) strike, the Minister stated that “other worker’s in courts of the respective state are paid by the state government, and their judiciary.
“That is to say magistrate, worker’s in the court, Clerk and registrar’s and the rest of them are not beneficiaries of NJC remittance to the court in their states.
“Again, there are some capital items like buying of cars, renovation of their buildings, court, residential building and rest of them all. These are things the state government should do.
“So, the altercation gave to translate the rest of the money to court, from federation account. So what it means is that, in a budget section, the judiciary should have their own budget and transmit it to the state house of Assembly of course with the concurrent list of that state.
“Because the state must have a wholesome budget, in which provisions will be made for the judiciary and state House of Assembly.
“So what has happened is that the real discussion is between the Governor’s forum, Office of the Accountant-General of the federation, ministry of finance, Attorney-General and the AJC.
“We proposed that a state budget committee be established, so that when this money now comes from the budget, we know how much is going to each arm of government.
“It’s a very sensitive discussion because the Governors made their point and said, we carry on some debts on behalf of our States for those debts we are giving Irrevocable Standing Payment Order(ISPO’S).
“So what we are ready to part with, is the net after the deduction of these deductibles.
“We ask if the deductibles land you in zero. It means nobody gets anything after the Executives’ deductibles.
“We are looking at it through human face, and we are going to come out of it. This week, we are going to look at it holistically.
“Because the Governors have taken back the proposals from the Judiciary and the Legislature.
“In fact, that of the Judiciary is not going to pose any trouble because already we have meeting grounds, and the moment the meeting grounds have been fully smoothened. We now sign the memorandum of understanding.”
