Why we rejected less than N70,00 wage offer from Abia govt – NLC

The Abia State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC has shed light on the delay in implementing the N70,000 minimum wage agreed upon by organized labour and the Federal government, saying that NLC did not accept the Abia State government’s offer which he said was below N70,000.

While speaking to Journalists at Government House on Friday, Governor Alex Otti explained that a team set up by his administration on minimum wage is still waiting for NLC while NLC said they were waiting for a directive from the NLC national council.

But explaining, speaking on Labour’s “True Position”, the Chairman of NLC in Abia, Okoro Ogbonnaya said that the Abia State government team actually offered something less than the approved N70,000 which he said, was rejected by the NLC.

Ogbonnaya who spoke to FLO 94.9 FM in Umuahia, made it clear that the N70,000 which is even for those on Level 1 Step 1, is sacrosanct and can not be negotiated about, noting that the NLC team is much interested in consequential adjustments for those in various levels.

He confirmed that the labour team is scheduled to meet with the committee again, armed with the approved template from the NLC headquarters for the consequential adjustment discussions.

The NLC leader acknowledged that the Wage Award which is different from the Minimum Wage is being paid to civil servants by the Abia State government.

“They told us an amount that is below N70,000 and we said no. For the government to say that they are paying anything less than N70,000, we said no. We are not going to discuss anything less than N70,000. What we are going to discuss is consequential adjustments”, the Abia NLC Chairman said.