The Federal Government has revealed that payment of the N30, 000 new wage started from April 18.
The date was when President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Minimum Wage Amendment Act Bill into law.
The FG also declared that no Governor in the 36 states of the Federation will renege on paying the new N30,000 minimum wage.
Dr. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, gave the
clarification, at the weekend during an interactive session with newsmen
in Abuja.
The Minister noted that a committee is working out a new template for
upward consequential adjustment for those already earning above
N30,000.
Ngige said, “It is a national law and no governor can say he will not
pay. (The) national minimum wage is Item 34 on the Exclusive
Legislative List, of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, as
amended.
“Issue of labour is also there and not on the Concurrent List. If it
is on the Concurrent List, then, they can make their own state Assembly
laws on that. Every state government is now owing workers if they have
not started paying N30,000.
“They (employers) are owing workers, effective from 18th of April, a new minimum wage.
“We are now in a committee working out a new template with which we
will adjust upward the consequential adjustment upstairs for those
already earning above N30,000.
“The minimum wage is for the most vulnerable down the ladder and that is the man on Grade Level 1, Step 1.
“So, you must consequentially adjust for the man on Grade Level 2,
Grade Level 3, Grade Level 4 and 5, because, that man on GL 1 step 1 has
over taken them with his new payment.
“That is what we refer to as consequential adjustment. This
consequential adjustment touches more the people on the lower ladder and
we are working it out. The negotiation is going to be with the Joint
Negotiating Council, at both the federal and at the state level.
“What we are trying to do now, with the Salaries and Wages Commission
is that we have a technical committee working out what the federal
government will do for their workers and advice the state government,
appropriately.
“In 2011, there was a mistake in the consequential adjustment in some
states, when they applied the principle of percentage increase across
board and they ran into trouble and were unable to pay. What this
N30,000 translates into is that there is a 67 percent increase.
“If a state government applies the same 67 percent increase across
board, there will be serious trouble. The same with the federal
government and when there is that trouble, there will be trade dispute
because the Principle of Ability to Pay will come in and the
International Labour Organisation encourages us to apply that principle
in our discussion.
“If I am unable to pay and my workers know that I am unable to pay,
we will sit down and agree on what I am able to pay. So, there is a
baseline now as no worker in Nigeria should earn anything less than
N30,000 provided that the establishment has more than 25 workers.”
