MINIMUM WAGE: NO REVIEW IN SIGHT, SAYS NLC
Mr Ayuba Wabba, the President,
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has blamed the delay in securing an upward
review of the national minimum wage on the disunity in the organised labour.
Wabba spoke to newsmen in Lagos on Tuesday on the prospects of getting a review of the existing N18,000 minimum wage for workers.
Wabba spoke to newsmen in Lagos on Tuesday on the prospects of getting a review of the existing N18,000 minimum wage for workers.
The present N18,000 national minimum wage was signed into
law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in March 2011. “It is time to review
the N18,000 minimum wage. If we had been united, this issue would have been
resolved,’’ the NLC president said.
He said that since 2015, when the organised labour submitted
a formal demand for the review of the minimum wage, no technical committee had
been set up to look into the issue. According to Wabba, the committee is to
start the process of negotiations, where the concerned stakeholders will gather
at a round table to drive the process.
“For the minimum wage to be reviewed, it has to be
tripartite. The employers’ organisation will be present, government’s
representatives and the organised labour,’’ he said.
The NLC president stressed that the current minimum wage
could no longer sustain workers as the five-year cycle for review of workers
income was due and the value of money had also depreciated.
He assured that there was hope of getting an increment in
the minimum wage but added that workers must be ready to fight for their right.
“Everything that we have gotten as workers over the decades
is through collective struggle.
Government did not offer it on a platter of gold. “These are
the issues that have caused delay in resuming negotiation on review of new
minimum wage for workers,’’ he said.
Wabba said that the Federal Government and labour could look
at ways of implementing a new strategy for the new minimum wage with the
economic recession not hindering the discussions.
Comments