Labour insists on N30,000 new minimum wage

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has said there is no going back on the N30,000 minimum wage.

The union also dismissed at the weekend insinuations that that there was controversy surrounding the N30,000 new national minimum wage proposal contained in the report of the tripartite committee set up by the Federal Government.

Its President, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, said the recommendations of the tripartite committee will be sent to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for consideration and onward transmission to the National Assembly for passage into law first, before the president can now assent to it.

According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari need not pronounce any figure for the new national minimum wage otherwise he would have passed judgment on it, noting that there was no controversy over the N30,000 figure.

He said:  “Every member of the committee signed the report. Our recommendation is N30,000 and I think it is not hidden. It has been made public today and that is the recommendation the committee has made to the President.

“When N18,000 was actually implemented in 2011, most of the states emptied their treasuries towards 2015 and, therefore, had difficulty. If there is the will, we are certain that there will be a way out.

“All of us know that a number of factors have affected the purchasing power of Nigerian workers. The value of N18,000 then was almost N140 to the US dollar. So, the economic factor is very germane.”

Recently, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, while speaking with State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, said Buhari would still study the report presented to him by the chairman of the committee, Ama Pepple, before taking a decision on it.

Pepple, while presenting the report last week, said the committee recommended that the national minimum wage be increased from N18,000 monthly to N30,000.

Mohammed however, said Buhari would only take a decision and make his views known after considering the report.

“I think it (N30,000) was a recommendation. Mr. President will consider it and will make his views known in due course,” Mohammed said.

Following Mohammed’s statement that the tripartite committee’s report was only a recommendation, Nigerians, have called on the president to keep faith with the agreement freely reached with labour and affirm the new minimum wage.

Meanwhile, the Presidency has reacted to speculation that President Buhari may have reneged on his initial acceptance of the N30, 000 recommended as the new national minimum wage for workers in the country.

 

The Presidency did so in a statement endorsed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in Abuja.

(The Nation News Nigeria)