The Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) has rejected the N27, 000 new National Minimum Wage adopted by the National Council of States (NCS) on Tuesday, saying the NCS acted ultra vires in determining another amount after the Tripartite Committee comprising the NLC, FG, and private sector submitted its report. The NCS, comprising former heads of state and presidents, and governors of the 36 states, among others, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly transmit an executive bill to that effect to the National Assembly for passage into law. Not so fast, Mr. President, the NLC said.
NLC General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that: “It is abysmal of government to be delaying the submission of an Executive Bill to the National Assembly by wrongfully adopting N27, 000 through the council of states.” Ozo-Eson, said the NLC has called an emergency National Executive Council meeting for Friday to weigh on the deadline given to government within which to submit an executive bill to the National Assembly; warning that the latest action risks precipitating a total shutdown of the economy. “Workers should not be held responsible for any development after its NEC meeting on Friday,’’ the NLC general scribe said.
Labor and Employment Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, who briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the closed-door meeting, said President Buhari would transmit the bill to the National Assembly by today, Wednesday, January 23, 2019. According to Ngige, while employers of labor in both private and public sectors and the state governments, will pay N27, 000 as the minimum wage, the Federal Government will pay its workers N30, 000.
“The bill will now amend the 1981 and 2011 Acts and the highlights are; the figure of N27, 000 monthly has been approved for transmission to the National Assembly, frequency of review of the bill is five years to get in consonance with the pension law of the federation as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. Exemptions to this Act will be establishments that are not employing people up to 25 in number and the various fines prescribed have also been altered.
“States or organizations that are able to pay more than N27, 000 could do so, it depends on their financial capacity. For example, the Federal Government has resolved that its own workers will not get anything less than N30, 000. It had decided even before now that it would top up its own minimum wage to bring it in consonance with N30, 000,” he said.
On the position of the NLC not to accept anything less than N30, 000 as minimum wage, Ngige said: “The minimum wage is for the lowest paid, the most vulnerable, the person on Grade Level one step one, that is the import. The labor unions understand that and so we don’t envisage any problem on that.”
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