Minimum Wage: TUC Tells FG To Pay FAAC Allocations Of Defaulting States Directly To Workers

As the nation awaits the announcement of a new minimum wage, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to sanction state governments who fail to pay the revised minimum wage when approved.

TUC President, Festus Osifo, made this known on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.

He disclosed that the union is designing a clause in the framing of a new minimum wage that will require that the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to directly pay workers in states where governors default on the payment of the new minimum wage when agreed on by labour unions, federal and state governments as well as the organised private sector.

READ ALSO: NEITI: FAAC allocation to FG, States and LGAs increased by 23.56% in 2023

“We are designing a system as part of this new minimum wage negotiation on sanctioning. That when a new minimum wage is passed, there must be sanctions to governors that are not being responsive, maybe their FAAC allocations, maybe the Federal Government can pay some monies directly to the workers instead of giving it to the states,” the TUC boss said.

Osifo said the current minimum wage of N30,000 can no longer cater for the wellbeing of an average Nigerian worker, lamenting that not all governors are paying the current wage award which will expire by April, five years after the Minimum Wage Act of 2019 was signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari. The Act is to be reviewed every five years to meet up with contemporary economic demands of workers.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the TUC have at various times called on the administration of President Bola Tinubu to hasten the upward review of wage awards.