N35,000 wage award: 30 states default, Labour fumes, pensioners threaten protest

On Wednesday, the Nigeria Labour Congress expressed its displeasure over the fact that nearly thirty states—roughly 90% of the states—have failed to pay the wage award as stipulated by the agreement between organised labour and the federal government.

The National Labour Council made this statement in response to threats made by Federal Civil Service retirees who retired to stage a national protest because the government was refusing to pay their wage award.

Labour leaders in the states of Gombe, Ogun, and Osun were paying N15,000 or N10,000, but those in Sokoto, Kano, Benue, and Bayelsa stated on Wednesday that their state governments had not paid the wage award.

State governors abandoned negotiations, according to NLC Assistant General Secretary Chris Onyeka, in an interview on Wednesday, as they gave workers N10,000 on their own without any negotiation.
One of the agreements between organised labour and the federal government was the payment of wage awards to workers as a means of lessening the impact of the removal of subsidies on Premium Motor Spirit, or petrol.

The Federal Government entered into an agreement with the NLC and Trade Union Congress in 2023, whereby the latter promised to pay a N35,000 wage award to workers for a period of six months and review the minimum wage in 2024.

Governors of the states were urged by President Bola Tinubu of Niger State to keep paying their employees the wage award until discussions on a new minimum wage were resolved on Tuesday.

In an interview with one of our correspondents on Wednesday, however, the Assistant General Secretary of the NLC bemoaned the fact that nearly thirty states—roughly ninety percent of them—were failing to pay their employees the wage award.

Roughly 90% of the states have not made wage awards. Although some states I am aware of have chosen to award workers N10,000, wage awards are not made in a vacuum.

"There's a procedure for that. A discussion with the employees is necessary. A wage award is not a charity or a quick fix. According to Onyeka, the procedure needs to be inclusive.

Gombe sends N10,000.

However, Ibrahim Fika, the General Secretary of the NLC in Gombe State, stated that as of now, workers have received N10,000 because the wage award has not yet been implemented by the state government.
"Nothing yet," Fika stated. Our monthly salary has only been N10,000. The wage award that was directed by the President has not been received. We continue to hope that, in order to lessen the hardship, workers will receive their agreed-upon compensation in full and on schedule.

According to the leaders of the NLC in Sokoto and Kebbi states, the respective state governments have not yet awarded wages to the labour force in either state.


The union leaders said they had started the process of negotiating the wage award with the representatives of their governments in separate interviews.

The state government would soon make the wage award to its employees known, according to Abdullahi Jungle, Chairman of the NLC in Sokoto State.

"We are currently engaged in negotiations with the government, and I have no doubt that the state government and labour leaders will quickly reach a consensus regarding worker compensation levels," he stated.

Murtala Usman, his counterpart from Kebbi State, responded, "Yeah, we are still negotiating, and the outcome will be made public soon."

According to a senior advisor to the governor of Sokoto State, who spoke under anonymity, the state administration has been implementing various strategies to mitigate the effect of the current economic hardship on its workers.
He declared, "Take note of the governor's announcement from yesterday regarding the payment of half salary to all state employees, including pensioners, to help them during this Ramadan.

In addition to the plethora of other resources provided to workers, such as palliative care, this is one. The salary award will undoubtedly be handled as soon as normal.

"Bayelsa lacks payment"

According to the state chapter of the NLC in Bayelsa State, the state government has not been paying its employees the wage award.

This was said by the state NLC Secretary, John Angese, who claimed that organised labour had not received a firm answer from the state government regarding wage award.

"No, the state government is not paying workers the wage award," he declared. Regarding that, the government has not provided us with a definitive response.

N35,000 is the wage award. The Federal Government stopped paying its employees after just two months, but they are about to resume. Since the federal government also defaulted, that stoppage prevented us from bringing any significant cases against the state government.

In her speech, Sola Adigun, the chairman of the Trade Union Congress of Ekiti State, stated that the wage award had become meaningless due to the increase in the prices of goods and services. As a result, she advocated for the prompt completion of negotiations and the introduction of a new living wage for workers.

As stated by Adigun, the Ekiti State Government has since December of last year been implementing the wage award for workers, “what is being implemented is not the same amount that the Federal Government expected.
"After receiving their salaries, all state and local government employees in Ekiti receive N15,000 each month. December, January, and February are the last three months that we have received payment. In addition to their pensions, pensioners receive N10,000 each month.

The state government began paying the wage award to employees and retirees in December 2023, according to Bimbo Fasasi, the chairman of the Osun State TUC, who was contacted.

"Osun is paying N15,000 for active workers and N10,000 for retirees," stated Fasasi, adding that the government had made payments through February.

It has been making payments since December 2023 and has paid through February 2024. We expect the March wage award to be received by the end of March.
Regarding the N20,000 wage award it promised to pay state and local government employees for six months starting in December 2023, the Kano State Government has not yet complied with its obligation.

Likewise, the N15,000 wage award that the government promised pensioners it would pay out over the course of three months starting in December 2023 has still not been initiated by the government.

This was stated in a phone interview on Wednesday by NLC Chairman Kabiru Inuwa.

He declared, "The government has not yet started the payment, but we agreed on N20,000."

In Kano State, he claimed, the wage award was not given in order to lessen the hardship that workers were going through as a result of the country's removal of fuel subsidies.

Efforts to get the state Commissioner of Information, Baba Dantiye, failed as his phone was switched off. He was said to be in the State Executive Council meeting.

A WhatsApp message sent to him was not replied as of the time of filing this report.

Labour in Benue State threatened to write to the national secretariat about the non-response of the state government to the wage award demand.
The state NLC Chairman, Terungwa Igbe, said the union had written to the state government about their desire to meet with the government.

He said, “We have not heard of anything from the state government despite the letter we wrote to them to have a meeting with them.”
Asked what would be the next line of action, Igbe said, “We are going to write to our national secretariat to inform it of the development.”

Meanwhile, the state government through the Commissioner for Finance and Budget Planning, Michael Oglegba, said the government would soon meet the labour union concerning the wage award.

The Chairman, TUC, Ogun State, Akeem Lasisi, said the state government had since July commenced the payment of N10,000 palliatives to the state workers.

“We were given 40 per cent of the basic salary starting from September 2023; N10,000 palliatives started in July 2023, while we also got Christmas bonus in December, ranging from N20,000 from Level 01 to N100,000 for level 15-17.”

Pensioners threaten protest

Meanwhile, pensioners who retired from the Federal Civil Service threatened a nationwide protest following the failure of the Federal Government to pay their wage awards.

The pensioners under the aegis of Federal Civil Service Pensioners, an affiliate of the National Union of Pensioners, expressed dismay at the failure of the Tinubu-led administration to pay the wage awards despite the untold hardship currently being faced by Nigerians.

While addressing selected members of the press in Abuja on Wednesday, the President of the Federal Civil Service Pensioners, Sunday Omezi, said pensioners were going through excruciating pains and agony.

“We feel constrained to bring to the knowledge of the world through this medium, the excruciating pains and agony we have been subjected over the years by the same government we served vigorously and diligently with our youthful energy without blemish only to be abused, dehumanised, marginalised and neglected with reckless abandon, after sapping our energy and leaving us dejected and consigned to rot and death,” he said.

Speaking on the unpaid wage award, Omezi said,