Non-Payment of Staff Salaries: NUJ Commends Lawmakers on Bill

The Lagos state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, has commended the House of Representatives, for initiating a bill to criminalize late and non-payment of staff salaries by employers in Nigeria.

The bill which has passed second reading in the House of Representatives, proposed that employers, who fail to pay staff salaries as at when due, must face the wrath of law, so also the underpayment of wages, pension and other emoluments would attract sanctions.

In a Communiqué issued by the Chairman of the Council, Deji Gbolahan-Elumoye and the Secretary, Sylva Emeka-Okereke, after the March 2013 Congress of Lagos NUJ, in Lagos, the Council encouraged the House of Representatives to ensure that the bill was not truncated by those at the corridors of power.

One of the penalties as stipulated in the bill , among other things, is the loss of 10 to 20 per cent of the value of the delayed salary by the company.