Minimum wage: Civil servants threaten to shut down defaulting states

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has vowed to shut down daily activities in states where N70,000 new national minimum wage is not being paid to workers.

Fielding questions from reporters on Monday, President of the Association Shehu Muhammed, issued the warning at the association’s 5th Quadrennial Delegates Conference in Lagos, where he emerged as the new president.

“For states not ready to implement the new minimum wage, let me tell you categorically, it is impossible. We are coming for them,” Muhammed said.

Muhammed stated that the implementation of the new wage will help improve the standard of living of their citizens since the incomes of state governments have continued to rise following enhanced allocation from the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

He added that state governments could achieve this by reducing wastages and blocking leakages of government funds, advising states to embrace the policy of indexing income to correspond with the inflation rate.

“The most important priority now is to address the issue of the new minimum wage by constituting a committee to address the consequential adjustments towards implementation and the strategies to ensure workers have a living wage in Nigeria,” he said.

“The full implementation of new national minimum wage and its consequential adjustments at both the federal and the 36 states of the federation will be the top priority of Organised Labour.”

The Secretary General of the Association, Joshua Apebo, argued that following the increase in allocation from the Federal Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, state governors should immediately implement the new minimum wage to improve the standard of living of their citizens.

He said “We request that state governments implement the new national minimum wage to enhance the standard of living for their citizens. This can be achieved by reducing wastages and blocking leakages of government funds. We also advise the government to adopt the policy of indexing income to match inflation rates, as recommended years ago by the Chief Ernest Shonekan committee.”

President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Festus Osifo, promised to support the new executives to ensure the interests of workers were protected.

He urged the new leadership to prioritize the interests of the union.