Minimum wage: Plateau concedes to labour

At last, there appears to be a resolution in sight to the ongoing industrial dispute between the Plateau State Government and organized labour in the state.
This followed the intervention, on Thursday, of the Federal Ministry of Labour in the dispute, which has grounded government activities.
The meeting, convened by the Minister of Labour and Productivity in Abuja, agreed that the state government should pay the workers’ salary with effect from June 2012 with the 55 per cent implementation of the minimum wage.
A communique, signed by all parties present at the meeting, reads: “After exhaustive deliberations by both members of the Organized Labour and the representatives of the Government of Plateau State on the on-going industrial action by workers over the implementation of the N18,000 National Minimum Wage mediated by the Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, CON, on 20st December 2012, it is hereby resolved as follows, without prejudices to existing agreement, that;
1. That the Plateau State Government should pay the salaries of workers with 55% implementation of the Minimum Wage from June 2012;
a. The salaries of October, November and December 2012 shall be paid as agreed immediately;
b. The payment of June to September 2012 salaries will be addressed by the Governor of Plateau State, Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity, and the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) within one month from the date of this Communiqué;
2. Labour to partner with Government of Plateau State to carry out screening through bio-metric to ascertain the actual staff strength of the Local Government Areas within two months;
3. Government of Plateau State in collaboration with the Local Government Councils to intensify internally generated revenue;
4. There shall be no victimization of workers and their unions who participated in the industrial action in the state during the period.
5. The organized labour hereby suspends the current industrial action in the state.
The communique was signed by Obong Ikpe Obong of the Central Working Committee of the Nigeria Labour Congress; the Secretary to the Plateau State Government, Prof. Shedrack Best; Emmanuel Ugboaja, HOD, IR, NLC; the Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in the state, Dr. Emmanuel D. Loman; the Chairman of the NLC in Plateau State, Comrade Jibrin Kamga Bancir; and witnessed by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity.