.Minimum wage to be paid from January salary
An agreement has been reached between the Akwa Ibom state government and organised labour on payment of minimum wage.
This was revealed by the Commissioner for Labour and Man Power Planning, Professor Victor Inoka, during a telephone interview with select newsmen soon after signing of the agreement after days of tense negotiations.
According to him, the agreement was that we pay exactly the federal government negotiated and approved percentages increase and the consequential adjustments therein.
Federal government and organised labour had both agreed on 66.66% increase for workers between level 01 and 06, 23.2% increase for workers on 07, 20% increase for level 08 workers and 19% increase for level 09 workers
They also agreed that for level 10-14 workers, therell be a 16% salary increase, while for those on level 15 to 17, therell be a 14%, on the consolidated public service salary structure.
This agreement was signed between federal government and organised labour on Thursday, October 17, 2019 to effect the new N30,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
The Labour Commissioner revealed that as a fallout of the recent agreement an Akwa Ibom worker from the lowest cadre will go home with salary above national minimum wage.
What people dont realise is that we were not really paying N18, 000 before. Akwa Ibom was paying more than N18, 000. We were paying up to N19, 000 when N18, 000 was the national minimum wage.
The implication is that once we adopted the new minimum wage on top of the salary that was on ground the minimum wage earner in Akwa Ibom State will earn above the national minimum wage.
Government has exceeded expectation. Unlike most states, the governor accepted to pay worker one month arrears. Representatives of Labour, NLC