The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday dismissed as misleading,<\/p>\n
speculations that talks between it and the Federal Government on new
\nnational minimum wage had collapsed.<\/p>\n
Ayuba Wabba, president of the NLC, said in an interview with the News
\nAgency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, that the talks had not even started.
\nAccording to him, the government is foot-dragging on the issue.<\/p>\n
He said the tripartite structure that should consider the modalities for
\nthe implementation had not been inaugurated.<\/p>\n
\u201cUptil now, government is still dragging its feet on talks about the
\nminimum wage; the tripartite structure has not been put in place,\u201d he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point we are making is that we have only agreed on the structure, but
\nthe structure has not been formed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have agreed on the membership and the structure of the negotiating
\nteam which is going to be tripartite, so this is the point that we are
\nnow.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the last meeting of the tripartite team which was held a day after
\nthe Sallah break, it was agreed that at the next meeting, all these issues
\nwill be sorted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened was that government could not form a quorum at the last
\nmeeting of the palliative,\u201d Mr. Wabba added.<\/p>\n
According to him, apart from the Minister of Labour and the Secretary to
\nthe Government of the Federation that were at the meeting, key ministries
\nwere absent.<\/p>\n
\u201cLegitimately, we have a demand that is still pending with them including
\nthat of minimum wage and the palliative; therefore at the next meeting, I
\nam certain that we will give government notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if the government was reluctant in setting up a team for the
\nimplementation of the minimum wage, Mr. Wabba said he would not speak for
\nthe government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I can\u2019t speak on the side of the government, but we are committed
\nin making our demand, it is left for them to tell Nigerians whether they
\nare committed to it or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the NLC president, the union would pursue the issue of the
\nminimum wage to its logical conclusion.<\/p>\n
The composition of the tripartite committee was announced on May 26, by
\nthe Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal.<\/p>\n
The Wabba faction of the NLC had put forward a demand of N56, 000 as a
\nrealistic minimum wage, while that of Joe Ajaero is asking for N90, 000 as
\nminimum wage.<\/p>\n
NAN reports that the government on its part has proposed N45, 000 as the
\nnew minimum wage.<\/p>\n
The joint committee is meant to iron out the differences in the various
\nsubmissions.
\n(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday dismissed as misleading, speculations that talks between it and the Federal Government on new national minimum wage had collapsed. Ayuba Wabba, president of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n