IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE AND INDUSTRIAL CONFLICTS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Implementation of National Minimum Wage has always been a problem in Nigeria mainly because all the stakeholders eventually do not remain on the same page when it comes to payment. Implementation of the new National Minimum Wage of ₦30,000 signed into law on the 18^th of April, 2019 is not an exception. Although the Federal Government has commenced the Implementation and has also paid the arrears of both the Minimum Wage as well as the consequential adjustments for other categories of federal workers except for the arrears of tertiary Institutions workers, many state governments and private sector organizations are yet to commence the implementation. This is a situation that always degenerates to industrial conflict between the government and labor unions representing workers who are their members. We are now talking about the new Minimum Wage but many states are still owing workers arrears of both the previous Minimum Wage of 18,000 and the consequential adjustments up to now. It is true that the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) has assured that all the 36 states of the Federation will implement it and some have actually started implementing it, some others are still dragging their legs. This has actually led to tension building up in those states as organized labour warms up for a  a showdown with the State Governments concerned. Organized labour has made it clear that so long as the new National Minimum Wage has been signed into law, every state government must pay it. This paper therefore examines the level of implementation of the new National Minimum Wage in the public sector in Nigeria by the different levels of government. The theoretical thrust of the paper is the Marxist Political Economy (MPE) approach. The paper contends that industrial conflicts that have always accompanied its implementation will continue to rear up their heads because some state governments as usual would want to play politics with it even though they were duly represented in the tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee that negotiated it before it was signed into law. It is recommended that each time a new minimum wage is fixed by the government; it should as well be religiously implemented in order to enhance industrial harmony.