The organised labour says the plan by the Federal Government to set up a technical committee to review the recent N30,000 agreed to by the tripartite committee national minimum wage committee will not fly.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says a technical committee will not look into the already agreed N30,000, as it is not the standard procedure in minimum wage matters.
According to the NLC, it is rather expecting the Federal Government to forward the recommendation of the tripartite committee which recommended the N30,000 to the National Assembly as acceptable practice and procedure.
President Muhammadu Buhari while presenting the Federal Government’s 2019 budget to the National Assembly on Wednesday, said a “high powered technical committee” would be set up to look into the ability of state governments to pay the already agreed minimum wage to avoid job loss.
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“To avoid a system crisis on the Federal Government and states, it is important to device ways to ensure that its implementation does not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.
“I am, accordingly, setting up a high powered technical committee to advice on ways of funding an increase in the minimum wage and attendant wage adjustments without having to resort to additional borrowing.
“The work of the committee will be the basis of finance bill which will be submitted to the National Assembly alongside the minimum wage bill,” Buhari said.
Buhari, said the committee would recommend modalities for the implementation of the new minimum wage.
But reacting to the government’s position, Ayuba Wabba, president of the NLC, said “no technical committee will look into the issue of N30,000 minimum wage.
“We cannot use any technical committee to look into the agreed minimum wage. The President promised to pass the report to lawmakers a week after it was presented to him.
“Once the tripartite committee has met and agreed on an amount, no other committee can meet on the same issue,’’ Wabba said.
He said it was the tripartite committee’s decision for workers to be paid N30, 000 as minimum wage and there was no going back by labour on the amount.
He noted that the organised labour would meet next week to take a decision of the next line of action.
Also, Joe Ajaero, president of the United Labour Congress (ULC), said that a tripartite committee had considered the ability of governments to pay the sum before the committee agreed on it.
Ajaero said that labour had resolved to fight for the new minimum wage even after the upcoming general election, saying that there would be no retreat or surrender until workers received the wage.
President Buhari on November 5, 2017 inaugurated the tripartite committee. The committee which wrapped its work about a month ago, agreed on N30, 000 as new minimum wage after prolonged consultations.
Nigerian workers have been voicing their frustrations over what they describe as the peanuts paid to public sector workers in a country where political office holders, including members of the parliament receive some of the biggest pay cheques in the world.
