Labour leaders on Wednesday warned the Federal Government to stop delaying on the New Minimum Wage and allow the tripartite committee conclude its job to avert industrial crisis.
At a joint news conference addressed in Lagos, the labour leaders, who are members of the Minimum Wage Committee, issued the federal government 14 days to ensure that the committee conclude its work or be ready to face industrial action.
Ayuba Wabba, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, expressed the committee’s displeasure with the comments alleged to have been made by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.
He said that Ngige had last week allegedly said that the committee should adjourn indefinitely to enable him to have further consultations with the government.
”We view his supposed pronouncement with great concern, suspicion and outrage.
“This new antic certainly is not acceptable to Nigerian workers, who had expected a New National Minimum Wage since 2016″.
The NLC president said that in the course of the meeting, the committee members had time to consult and received memoranda and inputs from 21 state governments, specialized Agencies of the Federal Government, the Organized Private Sector, Organised Labour and the general public.
Joe Ajaero, President of the United Labour Congress, (ULC) stated that minimum wage issue has been concluded and that the committee was expecting government representative to pronounce their own figure.
However, the ULC president refused to give a likely figure that could be approved as minimum wage and also did not give a clear answer on whether government was sincere about paying the new wage.
According to him, the call for a new minimum wage became necessary because it was already overdue, and in view of the increasing cost of goods and services.
Top labour leaders from NLC, TUC and ULC were all present at the news conference.
