NLC warns as new minimum wage committee meets
Conversations, centred on an offer of a new national minimum wage, may begin in earnest as the committee charged with the negotiation of a new national minimum wage will in the next two days (Wednesday and Thursday) meet for the third time.
The meeting of the 37-man Tripartite Committee (government, employers and labour) for the Implementation of a New National Minimum Wage is expected to be held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The Guardian gathered that the meeting was on the heels of the public hearing across the nation’s six-geopolitical zone, which would have to do with documentation and previewing of records.
Already, an invitation and agenda of the meeting of the tripartite committee, sighted by The Guardian, is expected to have the members make presentations and collation of reports following consultations across the zones.
Presentation of interim reports by the sub-committees is expected to be centred on the recommendation of a new national minimum wage, implementation, monitoring and enforcement, appraisal of implementation and effect of extant National Minimum Wage Act on the national economy, among others.
The documents from the wage committee showed that an average of 56 memoranda was received at the zonal public hearing, where an average new minimum wage of N622,650 was suggested across the geopolitical zones.
While North Central suggested N338,400, North East suggested N298,277, North West suggested N355,210; North East, N495,666; South-South, N1,199,400 and South West, N472, 200, giving an average total of N622, 650.
However, Nigerians are optimistic that with the collation of records, there could be conversations on offer, which would climax the usual offer and counter offer, debates and then eventually they would reach a consensus.
The Head of Information for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Benson Upah, said with a memoranda summary of public hearings on the new minimum wage from across the zones and positions made on the group, suggested that the wage floor has been opened for negotiation for collective bargaining, where eventually a figure would emerge.
He said the current N30,000 minimum wage will expire immediately after the new wage comes into effect and becomes a law, which would repeal the old law.
Already, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has warned about the massive level of wanton deprivation and hunger pervading the nation, stating that the restiveness across the nation was overwhelming. Noting that the nation was tense, he lamented that the leaders were still fiddling and thinking about 2027.
He spoke yesterday at the national delegates conference of the National Union of Textiles Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), in Abuja, stating that the country would be lucky if it continued on the path to get to that year.
He said: “The situation demands our collective resolve. It demands our collective measures. We are the ones that wear the shoe and we know where it pinches. It is our civic duty as patriots to continue to speak up and engage.”
He urged Nigerians to be vigilant in the ongoing process of negotiating a new national minimum wage, noting that experiences in the past must guide actions.
“We enjoin you as workers and as a union to give us your usual support to craft a new national minimum wage that will truly approximate a living wage. We cannot afford to fail and Nigerian workers cannot afford to remain poor while still creating wealth for the nation. Our fates are in our hands and we must rise in unison to resist those who may have vowed to keep us impoverished and beggarly,” he said.
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