The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has stressed that it would not accept the N27,000 minimum wage agreed upon by the Council of State.
The Nigerian government had also proposed the N27,000 figure as national minimum wage, contrary to the proposed figure of N30,000 by NLC.
The bill to effect the change has passed first and second readings at the Senate.
However, labour unions are insisting on storming the National Assembly to attend the proposed public hearing on the new minimum wage scheduled for Monday to express their displeasure with the reduced figure.
Speaking with journalists after a meeting of the NLC Central Working Committee, Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President said the union will on ground to insist on the need for the National Assembly to uphold the N30,000 figure as the new minimum wage.
His words: “What was agreed on at the tripartite meeting was N30,000 and on that, we stand. We are going to mobilise and engage on the issue particularly at the level of the National Assembly, that the outcome of the tripartite negotiations should be respected.
“We urge the National Assembly to do the needful and we are mobilising our members so that if nothing was done in that direction, we will take action to ensure that the decision reached at the tripartite session remained sacrosanct.”
A communique issued after the meeting read: “This is the resolution of the meeting of the Central Working Committee of the NLC. The meeting deliberated on one item agenda which is the issue of the transmission of the National Minimum wage Bill to the National Assembly.
“Having reached agreement on N30,000, that figure cannot be changed by any of the parties, but through the same process. So, government as an employer of labour cannot unilaterally change the amount that was agreed at the tripartite. This is our position and the position of law.” (SaharaReporters)
