Members of the organised labour, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), have scheduled an emergency meeting following the decision of the Federal Executive Council to defer the memo on the minimum wage.
The meeting, confirmed by a senior official at the NLC headquarters, will take place at Labour House, Abuja at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
The agenda is to discuss the next step to take following FEC’s decision to defer discussion on the report of the Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage.
PREMIUM TIMES reported earlier that the FEC decided to postpone the memo on the Tripartite Committee’s report regarding the new minimum wage.
This decision was disclosed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, to State House correspondents after the council’s meeting in Abuja.
Mr Idris explained that the memo was stepped down to allow President Bola Tinubu to conduct further consultations, noting that the federal government is not the sole party involved in determining the minimum wage.
State governments, local government areas, labour unions, and the organised private sector are also stakeholders in this matter.
“Although we already have a position, we will meet tomorrow morning (Wednesday) to refine our stance before we are consulted. This is important for us,” the NLC official said.
During the last meeting of the tripartite committee, the federal government and the Organised Private Sector (OPS) had agreed to pay N62,000 while labour reviewed its demand to N250,000.
Democracy Day pledge
On 12 June, during the Democracy Day celebrations, President Tinubu pledged to send a National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly for passage.
The president indicated that the proposed minimum wage might be subject to review within the next five years.
“We have negotiated in good faith and with open arms with organised labour on a new national minimum wage. We shall soon send an executive bill to the National Assembly to enshrine what has been agreed upon as part of our law for the next five years or less,” President Tinubu stated in his nationwide broadcast.
Labour, however, said no agreement was reached by the tripartite committee on what should be the minimum wage. (Premium Times)
