{"id":14437,"date":"2019-01-08T20:13:07","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T20:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=14437"},"modified":"2019-01-08T20:13:07","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T20:13:07","slug":"finally-nigerian-govt-sets-date-for-minimum-wage-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=14437","title":{"rendered":"Finally, Nigerian govt sets date for minimum wage bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nigerian government has finally set a date for the transmission of a bill for a new national minimum wage, a move aimed to stop the organised labour from starting a strike about a month before a presidential election.
\nThe federal government has repeatedly dithered on the labour\u2019s demand for a new wage figure, refusing to commit to N30,000 recommended by a tripartite committee.
\nStill, President Muhammadu Buhari assured he would review the recommendation and send a bill backing a new wage figure to the National Assembly.
\nWith the Nigeria Labour Congress and its affiliate unions threatening a protest and a nationwide strike, the government on Tuesday agreed to send the bill on January 23.
\nThe decision came after three days of talks.
\nTuesday\u2019s meeting held between 1p.m. and 3:30p.m. at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
\nThe Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma were present at the meeting with the NLC, TUC and other labour unions.
\nThe meeting took place the same day the labour unions held a nationwide protest over the minimum wage.
\nIn his opening remarks, the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, said protests were no longer necessary and threats should be withdrawn since both parties have reached an agreement.
\n\u201cOn part of the government, we are going to try to religiously implement all the processes that will enable us to transmit this bill within the stipulated time. 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 it to the statutory meetings of Federal Executive Council, National Economy Council and the National Council of States to enable us to transmit the bill on the new national minimum wage,\u201d he said.
\nThe national president of Nigerian Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba said the labour unions agreed to the date but warned it would not tolerate a breach.
\nMr Wabba, urged the government to keep to the date so that the process can be completed.
\nThe unions threatened the process will be reviewed with necessary action taken without reverting to the government.
\n\u201cOur position is clear and through our negotiation, they know very well that not yielding to the terms is going to spell a reaction not good for the industrial atmosphere of the country. We have it in good faith that they will honour their part of the bargain. We will continue to sensitize our member that once it is 24th and nothing is done, we swing into action,\u201dhe said.
\nAccording to him, the ministers and the labour unions have signed a memorandum of understanding. With that, I think we can actually follow up on the process. We have asked them to keep faith with the timeline so that this thing can be concluded. Having submitted the Report, we expect that the bill is transmitted and that is what we discussed. We know that the members of National Assembly want workers to get desirous minimum wage,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cClearly speaking, we have been diligent and we have always been carrying our members along. Our power is from the membership. Until the money is in their pocket, it will still be a story. We have told them to carry this message to all government houses in Nigeria. This is an issue that affects every worker. Any governor that said he is not paying should be ready for the rot of those workers,\u201d Mr Wabba said.
\nThe deputy president of the Trade Union Congress, Sunday Salako, said the labour unions and government were committed to the processes and an agreement has been reached.
\n\u201cBoth of us are committed to the processes. I mean the government and labour. We\u2019ve reached a clear understanding. Transmission to National Assembly must be on or before 23, January. After that, should anything negative happen, labour will not revert to Government again?\u201d he said.
\nThe NLC has been at loggerheads with the federal government over a new minimum wage.
\nThe NLC and other labour unions demand that the national minimum wage is increased to N30,000 from the current N18,000.
\nBut presently , the national assembly is on recess and will resume January 16.
\nBy Premium Times<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nigerian government has finally set a date for the transmission of a bill for a new national minimum wage, a move aimed to stop the organised labour from starting a strike about a month before a presidential election. The federal government has repeatedly dithered on the labour\u2019s demand for a new wage figure, refusing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}