By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG & DEMOLA AKINYEMI
ILORIN— GOVERNOR Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, Thursday in Ilorin, Kwara State, said state governors had not taken position on the plan to remove labour from the exclusive legislative law and review the National Minimum Wage law to enable states negotiate with their workers on what they could afford to pay.

A bill to that effect is said to be before the National Assembly. It is to be  sponsored by the State governors as a fallout of the N18.000 New Minimum Wage controversy that the state governors who were part of the processes that brought the NMW have been finding it difficult to implement.

Mimiko who spoke at the seventh National Labour Relations Summit, organised by Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, MINILS, was quick to fault the practice where the Federal Government would negotiate NMW with organised labour and forced it down the throat of governors irrespective whether the state would be able to pay of not.

He was responding to the call by the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar to President Goodluck Jonathan and the State governors to jettison the idea of removing Labour from exclusive legislative list and reviewing the NMW law, arguing that it is a protectionist measure for workers.

The Ondo State governor who was the chairman of the summit, said the governors were not anti-labour, but employers should be allowed go negotiate with their workers what they could pay.

According to him,” what is affordable in Ondo State may not be affordable in another state. The issue of NMW should be based on the benchmark the poorest state can pay. This negotiation should include all employers who are to implement the wage.”

He said the governors were not anti-labour, “we believe in a living wage that is affordable.”

Earlier NLC president, Comrade Omar had called on President Jonathan along with the governors to forget about the plan to review the NMW law because of the fallout of the N18.000  new NMW, saying whatever flaws in the processes should be ironed out by stakeholders.