• Urges protection for protesters as Adeyanju pledge
Trade Union Congress (TUC) has said that no matter when President Bola Tinubu signed the National Minimum Wage Bill into law, the implementation date remains May 1, 2024.
Speaking on the state of the nation in Abuja, yesterday, TUC President, Festus Osifo, said the last minimum wage lapsed on April 19, 2024, after a five-year lifespan, which necessitated the take-off of a new one at the end of the month the last one expired .
He said: “Recall that the Minister of State for Labour and Employment had said during May Day that the new law will take effect from May 1 irrespective of when it was signed into law. We also agreed during negotiations that the take-off date should be May 1, 2024. So, we are not shifting our position on that.”
He also cautioned state governors against reneging on implementation of the new wage when it was eventually signed into law.
Osifo added: “Let me remind our state governors that we have a strategy in place to ensure they implement the new wage. We know that some of them did not implement the last wage law even when some claimed to be paying it. The scenario will not repeat itself this time around.”
Defending the acceptance of N70,000 as against its initial N615,000 demand, Osifo disclosed that the initial demand was a working figure.
He explained that the N615,000 demand was based on a living wage, but that the government and the organised private sector negotiated based on minimum wage.
He said: “Although we began with N615,000 based on what an average worker needs to feed a family of six, the government and organised private sector used minimum wage as their basis.
“So, we had to accept that. Using inflation as a basis for the negotiation of a national minimum wage, we realised that if we used that, what the government ought to pay was around N75,900. That will give about a 92 per cent increase on the current wage. So, we made a lot of gains. The inflation figure in 2019 was around 14 per cent or thereabouts and it was around 31 per cent during the negotiations.”
On the August 1 to 10 national protests tagged ‘Days of Rage’ the TUC President disclosed that the trade centre was not participating in the action but stressed the need for the government to protect Nigerians that would take part in the protest.
TUC chief agreed that the economy of the country was in a sorry state, which has left millions of Nigerians hungry and poor.
He urged the Federal Government to grant waivers to importers of equipment that are used for manufacturing.s free legal services
