The country is at present sitting on industrial powder keg over the N30, 000 new national minimum wage recommended by the Tripartite members of the National Minimum Wage Committee.
No sooner had information leaked out that the committee had concluded its assignment and report ready to be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari who inaugurated the committee on November 2017, then the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting of October 10, 2018, debunked the claim that the committee was yet to arrive at a consensus figure to be recommended to the Federal Government as the new national minimum wage.
Recall that the committee was inaugurated sequel to unending pressure by Organised Labour from 2016 following the expiration of the subsisting N18,000 national minimum wage which came into effect in 2011.
According to Ngige, among others, “negotiations are still on-going in light of the fact that at the last meeting, the figures submitted by the constituencies that make up the Committee are as follows: state governments, N20,000; federal government N24,000; organised private sector N24,000; organized labour, N30,000.” Read more