Admin l Friday, Nov.6, 2018
LAGOS, Nigeria – Labour is currently mobilising ahead of the November 6, 2018 general strike, just as the Federal Government has insisted that there is no going back on the N24,000 minimum wage it is proposing to labour.
The FG had insisted that it did not reach any agreement with labour to pay N30,000 as minimum wage but that 24,000 is a living wage. Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige who was speaking on AIT said that there are some families that live with N24,000 and that the amount proposed by FG is for Grade Level 1, Step 1.
He said that the Federal Government proposed N24,000 while the state governors are saying that they can only pay N23,500, adding that the states are sub-sovereign and as such it is impossible to impose the will of the Federal Government on them.
Ngige noted that the states will only accept N24,000 if they have the capacity to pay. “We cannot force them to accept what they cannot pay, because if you do that for them to pay, they will have to retrench. FG does not want to retrench and we don’t want organised private sector(OPS) to retrench. We can only pay N24, 000 but governors say N23, 500”.
He said it is wrong for people to say that labour will not negotiate with FG since it remains their employer and what the International Labour Organisation (ILO) called competent authority.
He said that he has called all the parties for a meeting on sunday but not on the ground of the tripartite committee set up by President Muhammed Buhari . “We will do tripartite to adopt our report and sign”, he said.
