The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, has
reacted to a proposal by President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a
technical committee to review the agreed N30,000 minimum wage, saying
organised labour will not be a party to such an exercise.
Buhari
had revealed the plan to constitute the proposed technical review
committee while making the 2019 budget presentation at the National
Assembly in Abuja
However, Wabba who spoke shortly after the
budget presentation, insisted that as far as the labour movement was
concerned, the issue of new minimum wage figure was settled by the
tripartite committee, which concluded negotiations on the matter and
submitted its report to the president.
“We cannot accept the use of any technical committee to look into the already agreed N30,000 minimum wage.
“The
president promised to pass the report to lawmakers a week after it was
presented to him. “Once the tripartite committee has met and agreed on
an amount, no other committee can meet on the same issue,’’ Wabba said.
The NLC president said the organised labour is scheduled to meet next week to take a final decision on the issue.
On
his part, the President of the United Labour Congress (ULC), Joe
Ajaero, also kicked against the proposed technical committee.
He said the tripartite committee had considered the ability of the state governments to pay the N30,000 before agreeing on it.
“We
(labour) have resolved to fight for the new minimum wage even after the
upcoming general elections. There would be no retreat or surrender
until workers receive the wage,” he said.
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