N30,000 Minimum Wage Implementation: PRP gives 7-day ultimatum to Gov. Bala
Story from Ahmad SAKA, Bauchi
The People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Bauchi State Chapter has given a seven-day ultimatum to the State Governor, Senator Bala Muhammed Abdulkadir to initiate a supplementary appropriation bill for the implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage in compliance with the provision of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019.
The state chairman of the party, Ahmed Umar Farouk gave the ultimatum on Thursday at a press conference held at the NUJ Secretariat in Bauchi.
He said the party will seek legal action if the state government fails to do so within the period of the ultimatum. Umar said that the state has been running its budget since the coming into force of the Act without any appropriation for the minimum wage requirement, saying it will be considered null and void.
The PRP Chairman said the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 in section 3(1) to be precise, mandated all employers of labour – Bauchi State inclusive to pay a minimum wage of N30,000.00 (thirty thousand naira) only per month to every worker under their establishments.
He regretted that for the last two years, Bauchi State has not attempted to comply with the requirement let alone implement it as required by the Act, adding that, the press conference is necessitated by the fact that the party has for long, waited in the face of violation of the law.
“Gentlemen of the press, as you are all aware, His Excellency, the Governor of Bauchi State only a couple of days ago signed into law the 2022 Bauchi State Appropriation Law which as you all know is the legal document that will guide the financial spending and expenditure of the state for the next fiscal year. Worrisome about this document is how it has consistently refused to be synchronised with the provision and requirement of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 – a statute of general application in Nigeria.
“The penalties for the violation of this law are well encapsulated therein. See also Section 9(2)(a)(b)(c) and S10 (2)(a) (b) of the Act and we intend to test the full application of this law.”
Umar blamed union leaders and state legislators for not doing the needful towards ensuring the implementation of the Act in the state said this cannot be further tolerated in Bauchi State – at least not by the party, but the entire stakeholders.
“It is amidst this bastardisation and the seeming unending strangulation of the civil servants of Bauchi State that we the members of the People Redemption Party, Bauchi State Chapter feel that enough is enough.”
The Chairman said PRP as a party would rise up against the challenges facing the civil servants and called on all other political parties to join hands irrespective of their political differences.
In his reaction, the state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Danjuma Saleh Kirfi said, “We have our own laws that we operate, Bauchi government had implemented N30,000 minimum wage to grade level 1 to 6, what only remains is the consequential adjustment of salary for workers from grade level 7 upwards and we are hoping the government will do the consequential adjustment this year.”
The State Head of Service, Alhaji Yahuza said he will study the text of the briefing before his reaction.
Efforts to get the Chairman House Committee on budget and appropriation failed.
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