Edoka and his team who were received by the clerk of the house Ibrahim Amouka on behalf of the Speaker however called for an end to percentage salary at the local Government level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He lamented that Local Government workers are collecting 40 percent salary noting that, lives is becoming unbearable for them in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His words, ” Local Government workers are looking far older than their state colleagues. They are receiving 40 percent salary. Mr Speaker, any political appointees that want local government workers to be paid 40 percent, they should also be paid 40 percent so that they will use their money to develop the state. if this is done, it will make them feel the pains local government workers are passing through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The issue of percentage payment of salary to employees at the Local Government level needed urgent attention of the honourable house to mitigate the effect of the hardships steering the workers at that level in the face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Life indeed has become unbearable for an average Kogi worker because of the quantum of the current N18,000= National Minimum Wage being paid in the state vis-\u00e0-vis its usefulness in the market environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Consequently, there is an urgent need to cash-back all promotions already earned by workers and we seek the intervention of the House of Assembly in this regard please”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the bill by the House of representative to transfer the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List, Edoka admonished President Muhammadu Buhari not to give room for fifth columnist but continue to stand with Nigerian workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recalled that minimum wage is a agreement of the International Labour Organization which was domesticated during the Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We disagree in totality the move by the house of representatives to tranfers the National Minimum Wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List. We are standing on this ground that all workers reject the action of the house of representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Mr Speaker sir, we equally want to let you know that President Buhari should not give room for the fifth columnist but continue to stand with Nigerian workers. Minimum wage must not be removed from the exclusive list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Any attempt to remove Minimum wage from the exclusive list will incidentally bring suffering to all organizes Nigeria workers and the vulnerable, because it is the same wage we collect and we buy from them”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Honourable Speaker, the implications of transferring the national minimum wage from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List are very dire. Some of the implications include:
A license for State Governors to drag the country back to the era of ridiculous slave wages which in the past had precipitated multifarious industrial crises in different parts of the country;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The exponential creation and expansion of a community of the working poor with all the attendant consequences for socio-economic cohesion, stability and progress; and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

” It could lead to the exclusion of the private sector (both organised and unorganised) from the concept, rationale and logic of a national minimum wage, yet, it is in this informal sector that horrendously unfair labour practices take place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

” Removing it will be insulting the intelligence of the national assembly and those that drafted the constitution that kept it in the exclusive list. The excuses they are giving saying let state pays according to their wages is totally unacceptable”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the bill is anti workers and should be stepped down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could be recalled that the House of Representatives last two week ntroduced the bill which according to the sponsor, Hon. Garba Mohammed would allow both the Federal and state governments to freely negotiate a minimum wage with their workers in line with the nation\u2019s federal system, a move which the protesting workers say does not work in their favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

End<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organized labour in Kogi State has given the State government 12 days ultimatum to implement the N30,000 minimum wage or will be forced to begin an indefinite strike. The workers said if their demands are not met on or before 22nd March, 2021, they will embark on an indefinite strike. The Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,200],"tags":[1629,165,74,46,447,115,1175,1631,1632,1630],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4353,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions\/4353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}