Why N30,000 minimum wage is sacrosanct - Wabba
The President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said the proposed national minimum wage of N30,000 must be actualised because it was a product of intense and robust negotiations at the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee that lasted for one year - November 2017 to November 2018.
Ayuba Wabba, while justifying the need for the federal, state and private sector to adopt the N30,000 being demanded by organised labour, said after extended and extensive negotiations by the tripartite committee, a final compromise figure of N30,000 was agreed by all the partners - government, organized labour and employers in the private sector.
He said, “The National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee had state governments represented by six states, one state from each of the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.
“A letter was sent by the tripartite committee to every state to send in their memorandum as their input to the national minimum wage negotiations. It is on record that 21 states responded by sending memoranda with figures.
“Subsequently, public hearings were conducted in each of the geo-political zones in the country. The state governments were all represented at the zonal hearings and made their input to discussions towards a new national minimum wage.”
He said the initial demand of organised labour was N66,500 and that from the memoranda submitted to the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee by state governments, there were proposals by some states to pay higher than the negotiated national minimum wage of N30,000.
“This agreement took on board prevailing economic indices and factors especially as outlined in Convention 131 and Recommendation 95 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on Criteria and Procedure for Collective Bargaining especially towards arriving at a national minimum wage for any country.
“It was on the basis of this agreement that the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiation Committee concluded its work and submitted its report to Mr. President on the 6th of November, 2018.”