By Ehigimetor Igbaugba
THE ORGANISED Labour in Cross River says they will not guarantee industrial harmony from Wednesday if the state government failed to concretise plans to implement the N70,000 national minimum wage.
The labour unions made their stand known after staging a walkout at a scheduled meeting with the Joint Public Service Negotiating and Implementation Committee on the new wage on Monday in Calabar.
The committee chaired by the State Head of Service, Dr Innocent Eteng, also have representatives of the various labour unions, including Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the reason for the walkout, state chairman of TUC, Mr Monday Ogbodum said the government appeared not committed to the implementation of the new wage.
Ogbodum noted that it was labour’s position that had earlier forced the government to set up the committee.
“From the look of things, this same committee seems not ready for anything.
“We have heard from the grapevine that the government is not looking at commencing implementation until January 2025,” he said.
The TUC state chairman said that the labour unions received a directive from their national leadership that the implementation of the new wage begins from October.
“Our worry is that the Cross River Governor was a member of this committee that gave birth to the new wage.
“He was South-South representative in that committee and he is the one lagging behind while other states have already made pronouncement on this new wage to the workers,” he said.
Ogbodum disclosed that the governor had before now promised the workers that he would implement whatever that was agreed upon.
Also speaking, the state chairman of NLC, Mr Gregory Olayi said that labour staged a walkout because the government representative in the committee appeared not serious.
He said aside the fact that the government had not put anything on the table, the government representative seems not to be acting on the mandate of the governor.
“In our last meeting on Thursday, they formed a technical committee which we had expected, will come with something for us to discuss with.
“They came empty and unprepared from the look of things and we had to stage a walkout until they are prepared for us,” he said.
Continuing, Olayi said that labour is meeting with all its organs in Cross River on Tuesday and whatever decision of the organs are will be followed.
“We had on Thursday gave them (Government) a 7-day ultimatum which expires Monday midnight.
“We will be meeting with all the organs and whatever decision taken we will all see to it after the meeting on Tuesday.
Attempts made to get government position on this was not successful as the state Head of Service, Dr Innocent Eteng did not pick his calls nor return message sent to his mobile phone number.
