National Minimum Wage: FG Urges Labour To Accept Proposed Figure
Lekan Paul
Posted On Oct 20, 2018
The Hon. Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has again emphasized that Nigeria cannot afford rounds of labour crisis, hence, the imperative for the Organized Labour to accept a new National Minimum Wage figure
He said the figured was based on the capacity and the ability of both the government and the private sector to pay in line with social dialogue and the overall interest of the nation.
Sen. Ngige who gave the charge while he received a courtesy visit, from the new Director General (DG) of the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) Mr. Timothy Olawale and his predecessor, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, appealed to NECA to weigh its influence on the Organized Labour to accede to the new National Minimum Wage figure mutually agreeable to all the social partners.
“We need to arrive at a figure which the employers can afford to pay as an employee cannot fix a figure for the employer. Rather, it must be based on collective bargaining and mutual agreement by the tripartite partners. It is not a function of moving motions or voting at the National Tripartite Negotiation committee to insist that the figure must be as the Organized Labour appears to make it look,” Ngige said.
“There is absolutely therefore no need to heat up the polity. The government’s proposed new Minimum Wage figure is clearly based on critical facts and indices incapable of causing disequilibrium in the economy or upturning the national social order,” the Minister argued.
The Minister urged him to ensure that numerous private sector employers who are members of NECA as well as those not yet registered but are defaulting in payment of even the existing National Minimum Wage of N18, 000 are made to comply with the law.
Ngige also commended the efforts of the immediate past (DG) Olusegun Oshinowo for contributing immensely to industrial peace and harmony in the private sector and at ensuring that Nigeria was brought back to the Governing Board of the ILO employer section.
