Minimum Wage: NLC Issues December 31 Deadline To FG

Minimum Wage: NLC Issues December 31 Deadline To FG

The organised labour has given the Federal Government up to
December 31 to send the tripartite committee report on N30,000 minimum
wage to the National Assembly following a decision that was taken in
Lagos on Thursday at a joint meeting of three labour centres—the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the United Labour
Congress (ULC).  

Labour said the ultimatum followed President Buhari’s statement that a
“high powered technical committee” would be set up to device ways of
ensuring that the implementation of the new wage did not lead to an
increase in the level of borrowing.  

NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, who addressed newsmen after the meeting,
said that setting up a technical committee could not be a condition for
passing the minimum wage report to the National Assembly. According to
Wabba, the organised labour cannot guarantee industrial peace and
harmony in the country if the wage report was not passed for
implementation on or before December 31.  

“We reject in its entirety the plan to set up another `high powered
technical committee’ on the minimum wage. It is diversionary and a delay
tactics.

The national minimum wage committee was both technical and
all-encompassing in its compositions and plan to set up a technical
committee is alien to the tripartite process. It is also alien to the
 International Labour Organisations’ conventions on national minimum
wage setting mechanism,’’ he said.  

The labour leader said that issues on payment of minimum wage was a
law that was universal, citing that other African countries like, Kenya,
Ghana and South Africa had increased their minimum wage this year.