The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has told state councils to go hard on governors owing workers’ salaries or other emoluments.
The Congress said it was regrettable that many states were yet to start paying the N30,000 minimum wage agreed in April 2019, reports The Nation.
NLC President Joe Ajaero spoke when he visited the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation Civil Service and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) yesterday.
He said: “The issue of minimum wage is unfortunate. So many states are not paying minimum wage and this is a challenge to our colleagues in the public sector unions and in the states to speak out.
“I learnt that nobody earns the N30,000 minimum wage in Borno State while some teachers there earn N12,000. In a state like Anambra, a permanent secretary gets N120,000 or thereabout, that’s too poor.
“Comrades, I think you should sit up. We need to fight to end these things. The more we show gentility the more they oppress our people.
“In Abia, people have not earned salaries for 28 months. They are toying with our people. We have to fight because our people are suffering.
“For me, we want to make NLC a fighting machine, if you step on our toes within 24 hours we start fighting you, some people will say Ajaero is a mad man it doesn’t matter.”
According to him, since assumption of office as NLC President, he has made enemies with some governors over his insistence that the right thing be done.
“In Ebonyi, the governor accused me that since I emerged as President of NLC, I have disrupted his once peaceful state. In Imo where I come from, the government has cloned the entire executive of NLC, hence they disrupted our state congress there,” he revealed.
He also charged the administration of President-elect, Bola Tinubu to bring good governance to the people.
Ajaero said the NLC was looking forward to what workers would benefit from the Tinubu administration.
