A disagreement between the Federal
Government and Organised Labour in the Public Service on the template to work
out consequential adjustment in wages may delay the implementation of the new
National Minimum Wage.
President of the Trade Union Congress
of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Bobboi Kaigama told The Nation on the sideline of the
International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland that while the
government wants an amount be fixed across all levels, labour wants the
adjustment to be done in percentages.
The immediate past Minister of
Labour, Senator Chris Ngige had told The Nation in his last interview as
Minister that the government will run into trouble in the implementation of the
minimum wage if it carries out the consequential adjustment on percentage basis
as the government will not have the money to implement it.
The government has however set up a
technical committee made up of representatives and officials of the Public
Service Joint Negotiating Council to work out the template for the adjustment
from grade level one step two to grade level 17.
Kaigama, who threw his weight behind
the call for a universal minimum wage being canvassed by some world leaders at
the 108th Session of the International Labour Conference, however assured
workers that whenever the template is finalised, government will be obliged to
pay arrears of the new wage.
He said: “We are concerned that the
templates for the implementation of the new minimum wage are not yet out.
“It is one thing to sign the law
proscribing minimum wage and another is implementations because there are two
bodies in charge of negotiations.
“But as soon as we finish this last
leg, the effective date of the law is the day the President signed the bill
into law.
“Be rest assured that all employers
of labour in Nigeria will have to pay for arrears. The President gave us one
month to sort this out.
“But after setting up the technical
committee, we discovered that there are hitches.
“So we decided to go back and prepare
some scenarios, then back and look at them before agreeing on one which will
cut across all levels in the service.
“Government is of the opinion that we
fix an amount across, but we believe that is not scientific.
“We believe we should take a
percentage and even if that means you have to stagger it.
“We are preparing scenarios and at
the end of the day, we hope to arrive at something.”
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