TUC rejects N27,000 new minimum wage
National President of TUC, Mr Bobboi Kaigama, disclosed this to Channels Television, hours after the National Council of State approved N27,000 as minimum wage.
He said the organised labour would resist the decision, adding that they would not entertain a renegotiation of the recommendations by the tripartite committee.
Mr Kaigama added that the workers would continue their struggle for the N30,000 minimum wage at the National Assembly.
The organised labour union began the struggle for an upward review of minimum wage for workers across the country last year.
While the labour demanded N30,000, the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) agreed to review the amount but offered to pay N22,500 after a meeting in October 2018.
In November, the tripartite committee chaired by a former Head of Service of the Federation, Ms Ama Pepple, submitted a report to President Muhammadu Buhari.
But the NFG insisted that its members cannot pay the amount being demanded by the workers, noting that some states were still owing workers’ salaries.
Following a series of negotiations between the government and the labour, the Nigeria Labour Congress held a nationwide protest on January 8 to pressure the Federal Government to transmit a new minimum wage bill to the National Assembly.
The issues caught the attention of the Council of State which met today and approved N27,000 as a benchmark for minimum wage.
However, private and public organisations employing less than 25 workers were bounded by the N18,000 minimum wage.
The Council of State agreed that N27,000 would be the new benchmark which any lowest paid worker (that is Grade Level 1 Step 1) would get.
The amount approved by the Council was N3,000 short of the N30,000 that the Tripartite Committee on Review of National Minimum Wage recommended.
But the Federal Government has promised to increase the approved amount by N3,000 to N30,000 for its workers.
Channels TV
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