By Tony Edike

ENUGU—WORKERS in Enugu State will commence a three-day warning strike from today (Wednesday) over the refusal of the state government to implement  the N18,000 minimum wage.

Organised labour announced its decision to embark on the warning strike after a meeting with the workers where it announced the breakdown of negotiations with the government’s represen-tative over the minimum wage.

State Chairman of Nige-ria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Nze Chukwu-maife, had informed the workers of the govern-ment’s decision to pay N10,000 to workers on grade level one to six and N5,000 to their counter-parts on grade level seven and above as against the N18,000 approved by the Federal Government.

The Accountant-Gene-ral, Mrs. Eunice Ugwu, had issued a circular directing all the heads of finance and account in the various ministries to ensure that their payroll reached her office by today for immediate implementa-tion, but the workers turned it down.

They were particularly angered by the circular which corroborated a chart released by the Head of Service, Mr. Dennis Eze, indicating the amount to be paid which is far below the approved N18,000.

Labour declared the warning strike with a warning that if the minimum wage was not fully implemented, the state would witness a major industrial crisis.