The leadership of organised labour in Rivers State including the Nigeria Labour Union (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) have vowed to resist any move by the state government to pay workers without negotiating with them.
The labour leaders in a statement signed by the state Chairpersons of NLC, Comrade Beatrice Itubo; the Trade Union Congress, Comrade Austin Jonah and the Chairman, Joint Negotiating Council, Comrade Emechita Chukwu at the end of their meeting in Port Harcourt stressed that there was a need for a salary structure on which the workers would be paid.
They vowed to continue the demand for an appropriate minimum wage for workers employed under the state government, pledging to sustain the agitation for payment of gratuity to pensioners and promotion of workers as at when due.
The unions said that the sealing of the NLC Secretariat by the Rivers State Government was aimed at intimidating the workers, adding that they would not be deterred or intimidated by that action, urging the Rivers State government to reconvene the minimum wage negotiation committee for harmonious industrial relations in the state.
The NLC had earlier rejected the amount being paid to workers by the state government as minimum wage, stressing that what was paid to the workers as January salary was not a reflection of the new national minimum wage or a product of principles of collective bargaining between the government and labour.
