The federal government says the
national minimum wage bill will be transmitted to the national assembly on or
before January 23.
Chris Ngige, minister of labour
and employment, made this known on Tuesday while speaking with journalists
after a closed-door meeting with the leadership of organised labour in Abuja.
Ngige said the federal government
and organised labour have signed a memorandum of understanding on the
transmission of the bill.
“On the part of government, we
are going to try to religiously implement all the processes that will enable us
to transmit this bill within the stipulated time,” he said.
“We have a target time of January
23, and we hope that all things being equal, the executive will be able to do
so.
“We will take on the statutory
meetings of the federal executive council, national economic council and the
national council of states to enable us to transmit the bill on the new
national minimum wage.”
The minister, while commending
labour for its cooperation and understanding, called for the withdrawal of the
threat of industrial action, saying it was no longer necessary.
Ayuba Wabba, president of the
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said: “We have agreed that the agreement reached
should be documented and it should be signed by government representatives and
organised labour; we thought that is a more firm commitment.
“We believe with this, we can
actually start following up the process; we have asked them to keep faith with
the timeline, so that it will be concluded, as the minimum wage issue has been
on the table for the past two years.
“We also thought that after
having submitted the report and also drafted a draft the bill, by now, we
expected that it should have been submitted.
“We will shift our lobby to the
NASS because once the bill is enacted, the money will be in the pockets of the
workers.
“The issue of industrial
relations is always addressed at the roundtable. We have been diligent in the
whole process and workers have been patient.
“So, we are committed to the
process and hope that the timeline will be respected.
“We will put this across to our
organs and give them all the details contained in the memorandum of
understanding.”
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