By JOAN NWAGWU

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has frowned over the non-implementation of the new minimum wage and the Consequential Adjustments by some state governors.

Mr Joe Ajaero, NLC President, said this at the 6th National Gender Conference organised by the NLC National Women Commission on Tuesday in Abuja.

The conference was with the theme, ?Accelerate Action for Gender Equality: Imperative for a new NLC Gender Policy?.

Ajaero said that the salaries of some workers were currently below the amount they were receiving before the new minimum wage of N70,000 was implemented, as a result of taxes and inflation.

According to him, this is becoming grossly unbearable because even electricity tariff will take that off the salary. This has exposed us to all sorts of danger.

?If you want to be a serious worker and go to work for 24 days or 20 days a month, the N70,000 will disappear, that?s a fact today.

?School fees seem to be rising, transportation is worse, inflation is going high. These are issues that confront us as workers.

?The issue of implementing a minimum wage is the worst crime I have ever seen.

?In some states, you just notice N5,000 on top of your salary. So what is the essence of consequential adjustment.

?At the NLC level, we have negotiated for N70,000. At the level of consequential adjustment, the NLC was not contacted.

?So I wonder why workers should be short changed, I do not understand,? he said.

He added that workers in the Federal Civil Service were yet to take their complaints on the short change of salary payments to the leadership of the NLC.

?So many people are lamenting in their closets about how they implemented the minimum wage,? he said.

Mrs Salamatu Aliu, Chairperson of NLC?s Women?s Commission said women in Nigeria and indeed around the world were still being subjected to discrimination, abuse, harassment in their places of work and society.

Aliu represented by Mrs Deborah Yusuf, Deputy Chairperson in the commission, said that women were being relegated to lower-status and lower-paid jobs and under-represented in leadership and decision-making processes and bodies.

?The NLC has deliberately taken progressive steps in promoting the leadership role of women in various spheres.?

These are part of the strategies for recognising and promoting the active participation of women in the trade unions as consciously stipulated in the NLC Gender Policy.

?Currently, the NLC is in the process of updating and finalising the review of the Gender Policy, in line with current gender trend,? she said.

Mrs Vanessa Phala, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Country Director to Nigeria, said the organisation was committed to promoting the rights of workers in the world of work and to achieving gender equality.

Phala, represented by Mrs Chinyere Emeka-Anuna, Senior Programme Officer (ILO), said it would support the NLC in promoting and achieving gender equality as part of the sustainable development goals globally. (NAN)

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