The Federal Government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) have rejected the N22,500 offer made by Nigerian governors as minimum wage.
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, told the Channels Television yesterday that “The governors have not even done enough. I told them that this N22,500 is even rejected by the Federal Government.”
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and Zamfara State Governor, Abdul’Aziz Yari, had said on Tuesday that the governors settled for N22,500 based on the current realities on the ground.
Meanwhile, the NLC threatened that it would revert to its initial demand of N66, 500, as minimum wage if the governors stick to their N22, 500 offer as against N30, 000 being demanded by workers.
The NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, stated at a press briefing yesterday at the Labour House, Abuja, that the unilateral fixing of N22,500 by the state governors has automatically annulled all the initial deliberations held to arrive at the N30,000.
Wabba said the NGF lacks the constitutional right to fix minimum wage as they were not recognized in tripartite negotiation arrangement
He said “The constitutional, legal and morally right step to take at this point is for the Chairman of the National Minimum Wage Tripartite Negotiating Committee to submit the report of the already concluded National Minimum Wage negotiations to Mr. President for transmission to the National Assembly for consideration and passage into law.”
He restated the organized labour’s stance that any figure below N30,000 would not be accepted, just as urged the workers to for an indefinite strike starting November 6, 2018, if by then necessary steps were not taken to adopt the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee.
