{"id":14720,"date":"2019-01-23T02:45:59","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T02:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=14720"},"modified":"2019-01-23T02:45:59","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T02:45:59","slug":"nlc-fumes-as-council-of-state-fixes-minimum-wage-at-n27000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=14720","title":{"rendered":"NLC fumes as council of state fixes minimum wage at N27,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Council of State on Tuesday fixed N27, 000 as the new National Minimum Wage.
\nThe figure is N3, 000 short of the N30, 000 initially recommended by the Tripartite Committee on Review of National Minimum Wage chaired by a former Head of Service of the Federation, Ms Amma Pepple.
\nThe Pepple committee had submitted its report to President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2018 and it spiralled disputes, as the majority of state governors insisted they could only afford N22, 500.
\nOn its part, the Federal Government said it would pay N24,000 at the time, as against organised labour\u2019s insistence that employers must pay the N30,000 recommended by the Pepple committee.
\nHowever, at Tuesday\u2019s meeting, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, the NCS pegged the minimum wage at N27,000 across the states after reviewing the positions of all the parties.
\nThe private sector is at liberty to pay any amount to workers, so long as it is not below N27,000.
\nBut, on its part, the Federal Government said it would pay workers N30,000.
\nThe membership of the council comprises the President (who is the Chairman); Vice-President (who is the Deputy Chairman); all former Presidents\/former Heads of the Government of the Federation; all former Chief Justices of Nigeria; President of the Senate; Speaker of the House of Representatives; all the governors of the states of the Federation; and the Attorney-General of the Federation.
\nThe former leaders, who attended Tuesday\u2019s meeting were former President Olusegun Obasanjo; former Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan; Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.); and former President Goodluck Jonathan.
\nThe Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, confirmed the council\u2019s decision to State House correspondents in Abuja as the meeting rose.
\nHe explained that the council approved a periodic review of every five years, while employers with workers fewer than 25 would be exempted.
\nNgige gives details, says FG\u2019ll pay N30,000<\/strong>
\nNgige stated that with the approval of the N27,000, a bill would be sent to the National Assembly on Wednesday (today) to get the necessary legal backing for the new wage regime.
\nThe minister added that though the National Assembly had said that it would proceed on vacation till after the elections, the relevant committees on wage matters would continue to sit to work on the new wage for urgent passage.
\nThe minister added,\u00a0 \u201cWe have held a series of consultations starting from the inauguration of the tripartite committee in November 2018, to the Federal Executive Council, the National Economic Council and finally today, the Council of State and these three organs have permitted the President now to transmit to the National Assembly the new minimum wage bill.
\n\u201cThis is in consonance with the fact that the issue of national minimum wage prescription is in the Exclusive List, Second Schedule, item 34, and being on that list, it is not a job that can be done by the Executive alone. The President has to transmit a bill and the National Assembly will take legislative action and return the bill that has been so treated to the President for accent.
\nNgige also explained that the new wage would amend the 1981 and 2011 Acts.
\nThe minister added, \u201cStates or organisations that are able to pay more than N27, 000 can do so; it depends on their financial capacity. For example, the Federal Government has resolved that its own workers will not get anything less than N30, 000. I am saying that the Federal Government had decided even before now that they would top up their own minimum wage to bring it in consonance with N30, 000.
\nWhen reminded of labour\u2019s position that the minimum wage must be N30,000, Ngige replied, \u201cThe minimum wage is for the lowest paid, the most vulnerable, the person on Grade Level One, Step One. That is the import and the labour unions understand that and so we don\u2019t envisage any problem on that.\u201d
\nNLC rejects N27,000, to meet on Friday<\/strong>
\nBut the Nigeria Labour Congress has rejected the N27,000 adopted by the National Council of State on Tuesday.
\nThe NLC General Secretary, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.
\nAccording to him, the council has no jurisdiction to determine another amount after a Tripartite Committee had submitted its report.
\nHe said, \u201cIt is abysmal of government to be delaying the submission of an Executive Bill to the National Assembly and by wrongfully adopting N27,000 through the council of state.\u201d
\nOzo-Eson, however, said the NLC had called an emergency National Executive Council meeting for Friday to weigh on the deadline given to the government within which to submit an executive bill to the National Assembly.
\nThe NLC general secretary added that the Federal Government was only projecting a shutdown of the economy with its latest action.
\n\u201cThis is because workers should not be held responsible for any development after its NEC meeting on Friday,\u201d he said.
\nAlso, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, has rejected a recommendation that the national monthly minimum wage be raised to N27,000 from N18,000, its spokesman, said on Tuesday
\nThe TUC, which represents senior civil servants, said agreeing a minimum wage was a product of negotiations and that N30,000 had been agreed on and not N27,000.
\nCouncil satisfied with INEC\u2019s preparations for polls<\/strong>
\nHowever, the council also reviewed the preparations for the February polls and expressed satisfaction over the work done so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
\nThe Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), spoke on the feelings of the council members.
\nHe informed journalists that the Chairman of INEC, Prof.\u00a0 Mahmoud Yakubu, had briefed the council on the level of preparations.
\nThe governor added, \u201cIn his briefing, he informed the council of the preparedness of INEC and everybody in the council was convinced that INEC was ready for the elections.
\n\u201cA lot of things have been put in place and I think we all concluded that it is important for the chairman to even speak to the nation on the preparedness of INEC for the elections. That will convince all of us that the forthcoming elections would be free and fair and then the way we see it.
\n\u201cThey have improved the card reader, the details of what have been done to improve it were made known to us. It was made known that look, the process of continuous voting and accreditation system was the best so that when you are accredited, you vote at the same time and you leave.
\n\u201cHe also told the council that they are not lacking in terms of finance and that all the money appropriated, has been given to them and they are ready for the elections.
\n\u201cINEC as of today is ready for the elections and questions were put, he was interrogated and he responded and gave adequate explanations to the satisfaction of every one of us.\u201d
\nAlarm raised by former President Obasanjo<\/strong>
\nOn the alarm raised by Obasanjo that the current administration was working in cahoots with INEC to rig next month\u2019s polls, Akeredolu replied that all Nigerians had a responsibility to ensure the success of the elections.
\nHe noted, \u201cThe chairman of INEC without being specific made a point. That point is what I want all of us in Nigeria to know; that the success of election is not by INEC alone. Election will only be successful by the participation of everybody and that whatever it may be, we must take politics out of the exercise.
\n\u201cAll of us owe a duty as leaders of our people at least, to be sure that we have confidence in the electoral body so that we can assist the electoral body to succeed. And I think the message is very clear to everybody. I think that all of us in the hall have heard that look, whatever it is, we have now listened to the chairman of INEC and we are convinced that they are prepared for the elections.\u201d
\nOn the latest claim by the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed,\u00a0 that opposition parties had plotted with terrorist groups to cause mayhem during the polls, the governor said the matter was not raised at the council.
\nOsinbajo, SGF, HoS, governors in attendance<\/strong>
\nVice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, attended the meeting.
\nThe governors in attendance were those of Osun, Kebbi, Zamfara, Plateau, Ebonyi, Adamawa, Edo, Lagos, Niger, Borno, Ogun, Ekiti and\u00a0 Kogi states.
\nThe governors of Bauchi, Kaduna and Rivers were represented by their deputies.
\nBy The Punch<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Council of State on Tuesday fixed N27, 000 as the new National Minimum Wage. The figure is N3, 000 short of the N30, 000 initially recommended by the Tripartite Committee on Review of National Minimum Wage chaired by a former Head of Service of the Federation, Ms Amma Pepple. The Pepple committee had […]<\/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-14720","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\/14720","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=14720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}