Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris NgigeDr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment says the minimum
wage of N27, 000 is standard for all workers, but the Federal Government
will pay federal workers N30,000.
The minister made this known in a statement signed by Mrs
lliya Rhoda, Assistant Director, Press, of the ministry in Abuja on
Saturday.
According to the minister, President Muhammadu Buhari constituted a
Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage in November 2017 to
consider the issue and recommend a new national minimum wage.
He said the constitution of the committee was in consonance with the
provisions of the International Labour Organisation Convention on
Nos.26,99 and 131 as well as guidance provided by the accompanying
recommendations.
“In a bid to achieve a holistic coverage, the prescribed tripartite
structure went beyond the requirements of tripartism to tripartite – in
order to cover other stakeholders which included Nigeria Association of
Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture.
“Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria, National Association of Small
and Medium Enterprises and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative
Association.
“It should be noted that the output from the TCNMW was therefore
never meant to be sacrosanct, but to provide a guide for the Competent
Authority (The Government) to make final decision, Ngige said.
He said the ILO Conventions on minimum wage stipulated that each
member state shall be free to decide the nature and form of the minimum
wage fixing machinery, and methods to be followed in its operations.
He said that ILO further provided that before government took the
final decision on the matter, there should be full preliminary
consultations with representatives of organizations of employers, which
the government did with TCNMW.
“The recommended new national minimum wage of twenty seven thousand
naira (N27, 000) is for ALL categories of workers in Nigeria whether
public or private sector and is so contained in the new national minimum
wage Bill.
“The national minimum wage is for workers occupying the lowest rung
of the remuneration ladder on Grade Level 1 step 1 and are the most
vulnerable segment of Nigerian workers.
“It is of utmost importance to note that any public or private sector
employer who is capable of paying more than the statutory N27, 000
should be ready to do so.
“The Federal Government has taken the lead in this direction by
proposing to augment the N27, 000 by N3,000 to bring it up to Thirty
Thousand (N30,000) for the least paid worker per month.’’
Ngige said the Federal Government expected others in the public and
private sectors to do the same, if the financial capacity permits,
employers can pay more than thirty thousand naira (N30, 000).
He noted that the matter of the national minimum wage was in the
Exclusive Legislative List as item No. 34 of the Second Schedule to the
1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said it is the Executive arm of Government that has the
responsibility to prescribe a new national minimum wage and send to the
National Assembly for legislative action and lastly to the President for
assent.
The minister therefore called on the different groups interested in
the contents of the 2019 national minimum wage bill already transmitted
to NASS to get ready to make their views known at the public hearing.
(NAN)
