Workers in Zamfara and Cross River states may embark on industrial action from 1 December 2024 following the states’ governments’ inability to implement the N70,000 minimum wage. Katsina state was the third state that did not approve the payment until Saturday morning. It approved N70,000.

Legislation on the N70,000 new minimum wage in Nigeria was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in July this year. Still, many states and organisations have yet to implement it for their workers.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had in a letter dated 29 November 2024, addressed to all presidents and General Secretaries of all the NLC affiliates, directed that following the resolution by its Central Working Committee in Kano, workers in the non-compliant states were required to proceed on strike to compel the government to implement the new minimum wage law.

The letter signed by NLC General Secretary; Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja stated: “Recall that NEC of 8th November 2024 in Port Harcourt directed that industrial action to compel the implementation of the new national minimum wage should commence in any state that has not complied by the end of November 2024.

“This position was reinforced by the CWC in Kano on the 27th of November, 2024. Following the above, it is our information that your state has not commenced the said implementation as workers are still paid on the old structure and there is no subsisting agreement to show the date of commencement of the implementation.

“You are hereby directed as a matter of utmost seriousness to commence the implementation of the said, NEC and CWC directive, effective Monday, December 2nd, 2924”.

The organised labour warned the state branches that failure to adhere strictly to the directive would attract dire consequences. Directed public servants in 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to commence industrial action from Sunday, December 1, over failures to comply with the N70,000 new minimum wage.

As of 30 November 2024, 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have now complied with the 2024 National Minimum Wage Act.

Already, many states agreed to pay above the N70,000 starting point with Lagos State and Rivers State offering the highest pay with N85,000. Lagos State government also announced that its workers could get a pay rise of up to N100,000 monthly from the first quarter of 2025.

Workers in Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Oyo and Niger will earn N80,000 while Delta and Ogun states approved N77,000. Ebonyi, Osun, Benue and Kebbi states approved N75,000; Ondo, N73,000; Kogi and Kaduna, N72,000; Kano and Gombe, N71,000.

Also, Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Jigawa, Borno, Edo, Kwara, Nasarawa, Taraba, Ekiti, Bauchi, Yobe, Imo, Katsina and Plateau states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, all settled for N70,000.

In Cross River state, the Joint Public Service Negotiating and Implementation on N70,000 minimum wage was on 11 November, 2024 handed four weeks to conclude negotiations on the new minimum wage for the state workers.

The state Commissioner for Information, Dr Erasmus Ekpang, who made this known while speaking with journalists in Calabar, said the committee which was inaugurated on 11 November 2024 and chaired by the State Head of Service, Dr Innocent Eteng, has also agreed on modalities to fashion out an acceptable minimum wage for the state workers.

Dr. Ekpang, however, said that the new wage that would be agreed upon would be such that it would not hurt the revenue of the state.

The Zamfara State Government on 1 November 2024 said it will implement the N70,000 minimum wage after the conduct of verification of the workforce, to ascertain their exact number.

The state’s Head of Service, Alhaji Ahmad Liman, disclosed this while addressing newsmen on the state government’s plan regarding the implementation of the minimum wage for workers in Zamfara.

The state government says it is conducting verification of the workforce, and until that is done and an accurate number of the workforce has been ascertained, Governor Dauda Lawal will not commence the implementation of the 70,000 minimum wage.

The Head of Service, Alhaji Ahmad Liman, disclosed that Zamfara State has over 34,000 workers, but during the verification, it uncovered some ghost workers, issues of some receiving double salaries, while others already due for retirement are still in the service.

He says the state government will constitute a minimum wage committee, to fashion out modalities, and furnish recommendations to Governor Dauda Lawal, whom he believes will implement them.