Ayuba Wabba, NLC President , has said that the organised labour unions has given the federal government before or on December 31 to send the tripartite committee report on N30,000 minimum wage to the National Assembly.
Mr Wabba who addressed journalists after a joint meeting with the labour unions in Lagos, said setting up a technical committee could not be a condition for passing the minimum wage report to the National Assembly.
He also said that the organised labour cannot guarantee industrial peace and harmony in the country if the wage report was not passed for implementation on or before December 31.
In his words;
“We reject in its entirety the plan to set up another `high powered technical committee’ on the minimum wage. It is diversionary and a delay tactics.
“The national minimum wage committee was both technical and all-encompassing in its compositions and plan to set up a technical committee is alien to the tripartite process.
“It is also alien to the International Labour Organisations’ conventions on national minimum wage setting mechanism,” he said.
The labour leader said issues on payment of minimum wage was a law that was universal, citing that other African countries like, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa had increased their minimum wage this year.
“If you increase minimum wage, you are increasing the purchasing power of the economy which will help to reduce inflation rather than increase it,” he said.
He also urged workers to be vigilant and prepare to campaign and vote against candidates and politicians who are not willing to implement the new minimum wage.
