JUST IN: Labour REJECTS N27,000 New Minimum Wage, Sets For Showdown

By Dansu Peter

The Nigeria Labour Congress has rejected the N27,000 adopted by the National Council of State on Tuesday.

The rejection followed the National Council of State's decision on Tuesday to fix N27,000 as the new National Minimum Wage.

The figure is N3,000 short of the N30, 000 initially recommended by the Tripartite Committee on Review of National Minimum Wage chaired by a former Head of Service of the Federation, Ms Amma Pepple.

The NLC General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, disclosed the workers' rejection of the new wage in Abuja on Tuesday, a report by the News Agency of Nigeria says

According to him, the council has no jurisdiction to determine another amount after a Tripartite Committee had submitted its report.

He said, “It is abysmal of government to be delaying the submission of an Executive Bill to the National Assembly and by wrongfully adopting N27,000 through the council of state.”

Ozo-Eson, however, said the NLC had called an emergency National Executive Council meeting for Friday to weigh on the deadline given to the government within which to submit an executive bill to the National Assembly.

The NLC general secretary added that the Federal Government was only projecting a shutdown of the economy with its latest action.

“This is because workers should not be held responsible for any development after its NEC meeting on Friday,” he said.

Also, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, has rejected a recommendation that the national monthly minimum wage be raised to N27,000 from N18,000, its spokesman, said on Tuesday

The TUC, which represents senior civil servants, said agreeing a minimum wage was a product of negotiations and that N30,000 had been agreed on and not N27,000.

Recall the Pepple committee had submitted its report to President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2018 and it spiraled disputes, as the majority of state governors insisted they could only afford N22, 500.

On its part, the Federal Government said it would pay N24,000 at the time, as against organised labour’s insistence that employers must pay the N30,000 recommended by the Pepple committee.

However, at Tuesday’s meeting, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, the NCS pegged the minimum wage at N27,000 across the states after reviewing the positions of all the parties.

The private sector is at liberty to pay any amount to workers, so long as it is not below N27,000.

But, on its part, the Federal Government said it would pay workers N30,000.

The membership of the council comprises the President (who is the Chairman); Vice-President (who is the Deputy Chairman); all former Presidents/former Heads of the Government of the Federation; all former Chief Justices of Nigeria; President of the Senate; Speaker of the House of Representatives; all the governors of the states of the Federation; and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

The former leaders, who attended Tuesday’s meeting were former President Olusegun Obasanjo; former Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan; Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.); and former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, confirmed the council’s decision to State House correspondents in Abuja as the meeting rose.

He explained that the council approved a periodic review of every five years, while employers with workers fewer than 25 would be exempted.