NLC scribe, Lawal reveals adoption of N30,000 new wage as FG claims ignorance
Contrary to the trending claims by the federal government that the tripartite committee on new minimum wage has not come up with a unified figure, the Secretary General of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Bashir Lawal, in a telephone interview averred that the Committee has adopted N30,000.
He explained that “At our last meeting, a motion for N30,000 as new minimum wage was moved and generally adopted without any opposing voice. I don’t know why the government is dragging this issue.
“But we will continue to give government space to do the needful falling which, we will on our own do the needful in the interest of Nigerian workers.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, had on Wednesday, said the Federal Government and the organised labour had yet to reach an agreement on the new National Minimum Wage as being reported in the media. He said the government was still consulting and negotiation was still ongoing. Ngige said this in an interview with State House correspondents after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The minister said there was no truth in the claim that the three parties involved in the negotiation had agreed to increase the minimum wage to N30, 000. “I saw all your newspapers yesterday (Tuesday) awash with the news that we have all agreed on N30, 000.
That is not true. The Federal Government has not agreed on N30, 000,” the minister declared. He explained that while the organised labour and the organised private sector agreed on N30,000; the Federal Government proposed N24,000 and state governors proposed N20,000.
Already, the President of NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba has made it clear that “Any state or governor that is not committed to the new minimum wage will meet us at the point where we will sort out ourselves”
According to him, “the union under his leadership has drawn battle line with state governors who are not ready to implement the new minimum wage”.
“We have also made it possible that any state or governor that is not committed to the new minimum wage will meet us at the point where we will sort out ourselves,” he said.
In his remarks at the flag-off of 100 housing estate in Kwandere, Nasarawa State by the federal mortgage bank in collaboration with NLC, TUC and Nasarawa State government, Wabba noted that the union has completed negotiations at the technical level “we commend the organised private sector for supporting the process and for standing by Nigerian workers, we are at the process of signing the report and submitting to Mr. President. “It is therefore at that level that the amount agreed will be made public, the committee was appointed by Mr President, we have completed the process and submitted to him, he is the person that will transmit it to the National Assembly.
“I can assure Nigerian workers that base on what we did, if implemented will bridge the gap of income disparity that has long time put workers under very difficult condition,” NLC President said.
