The Federal Government has said that the Technical Committee announced by President Muhammadu Buhari to be set up on the new Minimum Wage was not to review the report of the Minimum Wage Tripartite Committee.
Besides, the government team on the new minimum wage has invited leadership of the organized labour for a meeting on Friday, January 4, 2019, to brief the workforce on the steps government was taking to ensure the implementation of a new wage.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige told our correspondent on telephone that the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami were looking through the minimum wage bill submitted by the Tripartite Committee.
According to him, “There is no bad situation, we are meeting them (labour) on the 4th, and we have sent them a letter inviting them. I will meet them with the Budget and Planning Minister on the 4th so that they will know what government is doing. “We will brief them properly.
The labour technical committee is not for them, it is not for their consumption, it is for the executive. It is an executive committee, a committee to advise the executive, we are not reviewing the minimum wage report.
“Government will look at the bill and the Attorney General office is looking at that bill and we will bring out an executive bill from it for consideration by the National Economic Council, Federal Executive Council, National Council of States before transmission to the National Assembly, that is the sequence and we will do these things in January because the National Assembly is on recess.”
On why the Minimum Wage bill was not submitted to the National Assembly before they went on recess, the minister explained, “It is going to be part of the budget, that is why the President talked about it in the budget, the entire quantum of money that would be used is captured in the 2019 budget.
“That was why the President talked about it while presenting the 2019 budget. Besides, the Office of the Accountant General is still working on their own bill, they have not finished.”
He further disclosed that people expected to attend the meeting from the government side include the Minister of Budget and National Planning as well as the Minister of Finance.
He said, “The government side is me (Ngige), the Budget and Finance Ministers. Labour has been invited. We sent their invitation about three days ago.”
However, national President of the United Labour Congress, ULC, one of the three labour centers in the country,
Comrade Joe Ajaero, told our correspondent that any meeting by government now was just to buy time, stressing that what was needed presently was for President Muhammadu Buhari to forward an executive bill on the N30,000 new minimum wage as recommended by the Pripartite Committee to the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has pledged commitment to workers welfare while appealing to the Federal Government to urgently transmit the bill on the new national minimum wage to the National Assembly.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba,made the appeal in a New Year message yesterday in Abuja.
According to him, 2018 remains one of the most traumatic for workers especially given the failure of government to enact and implement the new national minimum wage of N30,000.
“This is in spite of the unimpeachable tripartite process leading to the agreement by the social partners on the new national minimum wage.
“It is unfortunate that the Federal Government is yet to transmit to the National Assembly an executive bill for the enactment of N30,000 as the new national minimum wage.
“Government’s dilly-dallying on the issue has strained Government-Labour relations with a potential for a major national strike which could just be days away.
“Accordingly, we would use this opportunity to appeal to the Government to do the needful by urgently transmitting the bill on the new national minimum wage to the National Assembly.
“We also would like to use this same opportunity to urge workers to fully mobilise for a prolonged national strike and enforce their right,” he said.
The NLC president said the strike became the inevitable last option for labour, while calling on all Nigerians and businesses to understand and support it.
He, however, assured workers that their labour, patience and diligence would not be in vain.
Mr Wabba said the NLC leadership remained committed to giving all that it takes to ensure that workers get just and fair wages in a decent work environment appropriate to their well-being.
He added that the leadership was similarly committed to ensuring there is social protection for workers.
“The new year presents great opportunities for workers, pensioners, civil society allies and their friends and families to put their numbers to good use.
“This is by voting out, not on the basis of tribe or religion but purely policy, any candidate that cannot serve their interest.
“In the year that is ahead of us, the NLC remains unequivocally committed to the national and workers’ goals which include the campaign for industrialisation, against selective enforcement of ‘No Work..No Pay policy of government, among others.
“We will work assiduously to promote and advocate for the removal of all barriers to industrialisation, growth and productivity. We should be able to build a country where we produce what we consume.
“We cannot continue to export precious jobs away to other countries through successive poor policy choices of government and expect to change our unfortunate status as the poverty capital of the world,” he said.
The labour leader also described the use of the “No Work… No Pay” policy by government as aimed at hounding and victimising workers.
Mr Wabba said the NLC would continue to resist such unjust, draconian and insensitive policy and insist that workers’ salaries, pension and gratuity be paid.
“In furtherance to this, the Nigeria Labour Congress will intensify the struggle for regular, predictable and appropriate payment of salaries, pension and gratuity.
“We will continue to insist on accountability. The NLC will continue to promote worker-education and mobilisation through Congress education programmes and other union training programmes.
“These activities will be religiously held with the objective of positive impact on workers.
“Therefore, we urge government at all levels to consider workers as assets and partners in development rather than liabilities,” he said.
He stressed that the NLC would continue to insist that the elections are clean and that the congress focus was particularly trained on the 2019 general election.
Mr Wabba also said the NLC would continue to demand that both the election umpire and political actors play by the rules of the game.
“This is by shunning violence, election malpractices, vote buying, and manipulation of election rules and politics of bitterness.
“We will also deepen our campaign for good governance and fight against corruption in the same manner that we sustained the campaign for tax justice and illicit financial flows.
In a reaction to NLC demands, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) last Monday described as mischievous the insinuations by Peter Eson, the Secretary General, Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), that they do not want to pay the N30,000 minimum wage as prescribed by NLC.
Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, Head, Media and Public Affairs, in a statement, noted that the statement which was published in a section of the media, is not only mischievous, but misleading and in bad faith.
“The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) wishes to make it categorically clear that the Nigeria Labor Congress, NLC, through an interview granted by its Secretary General, Peter Eson, that governors are refusing to pay the N30,000 national minimum wage as demanded by NLC, which was reported in your paper (The Punch), Monday, December 31, 2018, is not only mischievous, but misleading and in bad faith.
“The report “Minimum Wage: NLC wants governors who diverted bailouts probed” is a needless attempt by the leadership of Labor to steer the public away from the promise by President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute another committee to review the minimum wage gridlock.
“Governors have collectively made it abundantly clear that they would have been happy to pay workers the N30.000 but times are hard and because of financial constraints and other limitations, many states cannot afford it, for now.
“The NGF had offered workers a token increment to the sum of N22.500 from the current N18000 after the submission of the report of the Tripartite Committee set up by the President and headed by a retired Head of Service Ms. Amma Pepple on October 6th.
“The N22.500 was arrived at, after extensive deliberations among all 36 governors, outlining their financial capacities and liquidity, considering the economic situation of the country and the states’ other obligations to the majority of the people of their various domains.
Governors also emphasized that N22,500 is a “baseline threshold”, meaning that any governor who can pay more than N22,500 is therefore free to go ahead and do so.
“Let it be known that governors have met the President twice on this matter and presented their books to buttress their point. First, a batch of state governors, led by the NGF Chairman, Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar of Zamfara State, in company of Govs Ambode of Lagos, Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Bagudu of Kebbi attended a closed door meeting with the President where the financial standing of six states, one each from all the geo-political regions in the country, were shown to the President, after which, on Mr. President’s request, all the states forwarded their books, their revenues, both internally generated and their earnings from the Federation Account along with their other sources of revenue, for examination. The president appears satisfied with the governors’ position, thus the decision to set up a new committee.
“It is important to add that there has never been a time in this country, when states have embarked on a more aggressive revenue drive than they are doing today. And this is without exception or prejudice to any state.
“To put the records straight, governors are not under any obligation, by law, to show their books to the NLC. But they have, in their pursuit of the understanding of the union, done so, not once, but several times over, with a view to letting NLC know that what they are asking for is neither realistic nor sustainable. Yet, NLC remains adamant that its will must be done, or the heavens will fall.