Workers will not vote for governors who don’t pay salary — Labour leader

Isa Aremu, the General Secretary, Textile Union Workers, on Wednesday said the 2019 election would be determined by dignity of labour and commitment in payment of workers’ salary.
Aremu said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos in response to government’s plan to raise workers’ salary after negotiation by the newly inaugurated 30-member committee on new minimum wage.
According to him, governors who refuse to pay salary of workers when due and those who criminalise workers on account of deficiency in skill will not get workers’ votes.
He added that labour would be partisan and political in its interest, based on those who paid salary.
He said: “Dignity of labour will not be ensured if workers are not paid when due. Workers have the right to employment.”
The general secretary said labour would conduct competence test for governors with a view to judging them based on their indices.
Aremu said: “It will involve skills like: ‘do you pay workers when due; do you engage workers in social dialogue or in dictatorship policies? Among others.”
He noted that for the country to properly recover from recession, workers’ salary must be increased.
He advised the 30-member minimum wage committee inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari not to spend more than six months to dialogue as lots of time had already gone by.