Minimum Wage: Govs must cut down expenses on appointees – Kwara TUC Chair
A suggestion has gone to state governors to cut down the huge expenses on political appointees to enable them pay the N30,000 minimum wage that they are lamenting over.
The Kwara State Chairman of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Olumoh Kolawole made the suggestion in Ilorin at the weekend, while answering questions on a Radio Kwara personality interview programme; ‘Playing Host’.
Olumoh said that most state governors appoint special assistants or advisers on huge salaries, without any relevance to governance of their various states.
According to him, it came as a big surprise to the organised labour that the governors could renege on their initial agreement at the tripartite meeting where it was agreed that they would pay the N30, 000 minimum wage or even above.
He declared that the organised labour only recognise the tripartite body comprising of the government, the labour and the private sector and does not recognise any organisation known as Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) which is claiming not to have the capability to pay the new minimum wage.
Comrade Olumoh threatened that any governor that fails to pay the agreed minimum wage would be voted out of office by the Nigerian workers during next year’s general elections.
According to him, the cost the governors will incur if they decide to downsize or sack workers as they have threatened if they should pay the N30,000 is far above what the minimum wage would cost them.
He appealed to the FG to put in place machineries that would give workers value for the new minimum wage to avoid inflation in the prices of goods, foodstuff and other commodities.
Olumoh, who is also the state chairman of senior civil servants of Nigeria expressed the hope that President Muhammadu Buhari would soon sign the White Paper report on the new minimum wage for passage to the National Assembly to hasten its full implementation.
He, however, urged workers to continue to exercise patience and endurance assuring them, that everything would be done to ensure that their wages are properly taken care of this time.