The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has faulted Governors yet to pay the new minimum wage to workers in their states.
He made the comment while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, stating that any employer paying its employees below N30,000 was doing so in contravention of the law.
“If you read the Act well, you will see the applicability of the Act. The applicability is that all parts of the Federation (Section II); Section III also says N30,000 shall be paid, the operating word is shall.
“It does not give room for picking and choosing, it is a must. The state governors that are not paying are breaching the law of the land,” the minister said.
President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Minimum Wage Repeal and Re-Enactment Act, 2019 into law on April 18, 2019.
The Act makes it compulsory for all employers of labour in the country to pay a minimum of N30,000 to their workers and gives workers compelled to accept salary less than the amount the right to sue their employer to recover the balance.
It also authorises the Minister of Labour and any person nominated or designated by the minister to take action against such an employer on behalf of the worker to recover the balance of the wages.
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The law, however, excludes persons employing less than 25 workers, persons who work in a ship that sails out of jurisdiction, and others in other kinds of regulated employment that are accepted by the Act.
Two years after the President assented to the Act, some states have begun to pay civil servants the new minimum wage while others still struggle to do so as a result of inadequate funds.
In his reaction, Ngige faulted governors negotiating with the labour unions in their states over the payment of the minimum wage to workers.
According to him, they are getting the issues mixed up as the minimum wage is different from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
