FG, Labour Reach Consensus on Review of Minimum Wage

Senator Iroegbu

The President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayuba Wabba, has said the federal government and the leaders of labour unions in the country have reached a consensus to review the National Minimum Wage.

Wabba disclosed this yesterday, saying the consensus was reached during the sitting of the Technical Committee on Palliative.

He said the committee was meant to look into the framework to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians and cushion the effect of the increase in the price of fuel.

The MLC leader also noted that the report of the committee, which was also meant to discuss the issue of the minimum wage, was ready for submission.

He said: “I think there is a consensus on the fact that nobody has said that the minimum wage should not be reviewed. The palliative report is ready and it would be submitted before the end of the month.

“At the last palliative meeting, labour leaders had requested that they needed to look at the main report of the committee before submission. So, the technical committee will have to submit its report to Mr. President and not to the Minister of Labour and Employment.”

The NLC president said after the submission, the presidency would then set up the tripartite committee that would involve the government, private and public sector.

He stressed that labour was hopeful that the minimum wage committee would be constituted soon.

Wabba also noted that the organised labour movement has received positive response from the National Assembly, saying that the Senate had promised to pass the bill.

The labour unions had submitted a proposal to the government demanding for N56, 000 as minimum wage.

The Federal Government has last month agreed to set up a committee for the review of the New Minimum Wage this month.

This move was confirmed by the Special Assistant to the Minister of Labour and Employment on Media, Mr. Nwachukwu Obidiwe, who said that the government would set up the tripartite committee for the new Minimum Wage immediately after the submission of the report of the Palliative Committee.

“The Technical Committee on Palliatives will submit their report by next week. The federal government will now set up another committee to review the minimum wage. This one will submit their report next week.

“The technical committee established by government will submit its report next week. Once done, the FG will set up a tripartite committee comprising FG, State governments, Labour while public and private sector will be represented by the Nigeria Employers Consultative Assembly,” Obidiwe had said.

The federal government had set up a 16-man committee on June 1, 2016, to implement palliatives put in place to cushion the effect of the increase in the fuel pump price from N86 and N86.50k to N145.